Over 100,000 new registrants have sought “same-day registration” in North Carolina during each of the last two presidential general elections, so slight adjustments in the closely divided state could make a difference in this November’s elections for president, governor and other statewide positions.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge has blocked, for now, a
Representatives of some of the plaintiffs praised the ruling as a “major victory” and will “continue working to ensure that the (mail provision) does not wrongfully disenfranchise eligible North Carolinians in 2024,” attorney Aria Branch said in a news release.
Lawyers for the state board and GOP legislative leaders defending the new verification rule in court have said reducing the number of mailers to confirm the applicant’s mailing address attempts to address a problem with same-day registration.
The previous law could lead to situations where the second verification mailer is returned as undeliverable after vote totals are finalized, meaning the ineligible registrant’s ballot is still counted. State lawyers also said a ruling in a previous lawsuit discourages efforts by local election boards to challenge such votes before the final count.
Schroeder acknowledged there are legitimate interests in using address verification to promote preserving the integrity of the election process and instilling voter confidence. But he wrote the plaintiffs have shown the state’s “precise interests asserted in this case likely do not outweigh the substantial burden on the rights of same-day registrants who cast a ballot.”
For the November 2020 election, for example, about 2,150 new same-day registration applicants in North Carolina failed the address verification. But Schroeder said the state board and Republican legislators “have presented no evidence that address verification has ever filtered out a single ineligible same-day registrant.”
Schroeder refused to issue preliminary injunctions sought by the Democratic National Committee, state Democratic Party and others on other provisions related to same-day registration. The new law contains other provisions that also remain in effect, including increasing access by partisan poll observers at voting sites and requiring mail-in absentee ballots be returned by election night in order to count.
The state Republican Party and Republican National Committee also joined the lawsuit as defendants.
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