Supreme Court approves some of the worst voting restrictions in the country
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court overruled a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that reinstated same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting in North Carolina for midterm elections.
Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor dissented.
It’s the second time the Supreme Court has ruled against voting rights in the past ten days, after the court also overruled an appeals court decision reinstating a week of early voting and same-day registration in Ohio.
The roots of the North Carolina case go back to June 25, 2013, when the Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, which meant that states with the worst history of voting discrimination—like North Carolina—no longer had to approve their voting changes with the federal government.
A month after that ruling, North Carolina passed the country’s toughest voting restrictions, repealing or curtailing every voting reform in the state that encouraged people to vote. The bill became far more extreme because of the Shelby decision and the federal government no longer had the power to prevent it from becoming law. As Justice Ginsburg wrote in her dissent, “These measures likely would not have survived federal preclearance.”
The Supreme Court’s decision could have a significantly negative impact on the November election. Nearly 100,000 voters used same-day registration during early voting periods in 2012, with twice as many blacks as whites turning to the option.
Roughly 75,000 voters cast their ballots in the wrong precinct in 2012.
States with same-day voter registration have the highest turnouts in the country. Residents in North Carolina now have just one more day to register to vote before the Oct. 10 deadline.
The blatant discrimination is unbelievable.
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