Judicial Watch has joined with the Allied Educational Foundation (AEF) in filing a brief in support of Governor McCrory’s quest that the courts uphold North Carolina’s voter ID law.

Excerpt from the Judicial Watch press release:

Judicial Watch announced today it has joined with the Allied Educational Foundation (AEF) in filing an amici curiae brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in the caseNAACP v. McCrory (No. 16-1468).  The brief argues in support of a lower court ruling that the 2013 North Carolina election-integrity law, which includes, among other provisions, a requirement that voters show a photo identification card before casting a ballot, is valid.

The Judicial Watch/AEF brief was filed in support of North Carolina Governor Patrick L. McCrory, who is asking the court to sustain the decision of U.S. District Court Judge Thomas D. Schroeder, upholding the North Carolina voter law.

The case concerns North Carolina’s adoption of common-sense election integrity measures requiring voter ID, eliminating “same-day” voter registration, reducing the early voting period, and prohibiting voters from casting provisional ballots outside of their voting precincts.  The Department of Justice and other groups represented by the NAACP and the League of Women Voters filed suit, alleging this law was racially discriminatory against black voters in violation of Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act (“VRA”).

The Judicial Watch press release goes on to explain that the DOJ is wrong on many points with regards to the VRA:

In their amici brief, JW and AEF explained that the Department of Justice was wrong.  First, Section 2 of the VRA only prohibits state laws that directly cause increased difficulty for voters to exercise their right to vote “because of” or “on account of” their race.  The North Carolina law causes no such injury to minority voters.  Furthermore, JW and AEF explained that state’s voting laws are not illegal under the VRA just because plaintiffs show a statistical “disparate impact” of the law on racial groups, but rather the law must actually deny people an equal opportunity to participate based upon their race.  North Carolina’s requirement that voters show identification does not deny opportunities to vote based upon race.  Finally, JW and AEF explained that the Department of Justice is wrongly trying to resuscitate Section 5 of the VRA, which imposed more stringent limits on states’ election laws but was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 in Shelby County v. Holder.

Judicial watch’s explanation continues, citing that African-American voter registration and voting has been increasing in the state:

Judicial Watch and AEF cite statistical evidence indicating that not only has African-American voter registration and voting not declined since enactment of the North Carolina law; it has actually increased:

Elections since the enactment of SL 2013-381 [the North Carolina election integrity law] have provided real life proof that the challenged provisions of SL 2013-381 do not cause any discernible disadvantage to minority voters.  Rather, both black and white voters adapt to the new rules and continue to turn out to vote at rates higher than under the former voting rules changed by SL 2013-381.

Read the full press release.

As a point of interest, turn out is expected to be so high for the coming November election that North Carolina’s largest district has decided to enact a two hour delay for opening on election day:

.@WCPSS schools will open on a two-hour delay Election Day https://t.co/Dd5mxNYbiO pic.twitter.com/CkYuLEv6Aq

— newsobserver.com (@newsobserver) July 20, 2016

Also happening in Wake County, the Voter Integrity Project (VIP) is suing the Wake County Board of Elections in federal court. VIP asserts that the Wake Board of Elections has not maintained accurate voter rolls and that more voters are on the rolls than live in the county.

Excerpt from VIP’s article announcing the suit:

(RALEIGH) — July 18, 2016. Today, the Voter Integrity Project, filed a federal lawsuit, against the Wake County Board of Elections alleging their office failed to properly maintain the voter rolls, by not using all available government records to keep their voter rolls clear of non-US citizens.

“We’ve been trying to learn why 104 percent of eligible Wake County citizens are able to vote in our elections,” said Jay DeLancy, Director of Voter Integrity Project, “but instead of working together to find solutions, the Board ignored our requests and denied the validity of our research.”

The article is accompanied by documents supporting the suit, such as the Public Interest Legal Foundation Press Release, the Complaint and Exhibit A – Final Declaration.

News of the suit was picked up by the Washington Free Beacon and cites Wake County Board of Elections official, Gary Sims, disputing the claims. Free Beacon reported that, ” Sims claims his calculations showed 96,000 fewer people registered to vote than those living in the county.”