After Voting Rights Act ruling, states tighten voting laws

People queue to cast their ballots at a polling station in Washington,DC on November 6, 2012. Americans head to the polls after a burst of last-minute campaigning by President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in a nail-biting contest unlikely to heal a deeply polarized nation. After a long, expensive and fiercely negative campaign, voters will decide whether to re-elect Obama despite the plodding economy or hand the reins to Romney, who has vowed a return to prosperity through smaller government. NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty

The North Carolina state legislature on Thursday night passed a series of strict voting rules, making it the latest state to take advantage of the Supreme Court's ruling weakening the Voting Rights Act.

The new measures require voters to present a government-issued ID at the polls, even though the state estimates more than 300,000 registered voters in North Carolina -- most of them elderly or low-income minorities -- don't have government-issued IDs. The new rules also shorten early voting by a week, end same-day registration and end straight-ticket voting -- rules that would hurt Democrats more than Republicans, statistics suggest.

The new rules now go to Gov. Pat McCrory, R-N.C., to be signed into law, even though they may invite legal challenges.

Under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, North Carolina was one of a handful of states with a history of racial discrimination that were required to have any changes to their voting laws pre-approved by the Justice Department the D.C. federal court. Earlier this year, however, the Supreme Court ruled that the government's rules for determining which states should be subject to "pre-clearance" were unconstitutional. That means until Congress updates those rules, states no longer have to get pre-clearance for new voting laws.

Since the Supreme Court ruling, five other states previously covered by the Voting Rights Act pre-clearance rule, in addition to North Carolina, have moved forward with new voter ID requirements.

While it is no longer pre-approving laws, the Justice Department can still monitor voting laws and file suit against laws it considers discriminatory. Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday suggested he could make such a move against North Carolina or other states with strict voting laws.


Holder also announced that the Justice Department is asking a federal court to keep Texas under the "pre-clearance" requirement, in response to evidence of intentional racial discrimination that came up last year in a Texas redistricting case.



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