North Carolina's Racially Motivated Voter ID Law Targeting African-Americans Overturned

Voter rights and the franchise have been under attack during recent years.  State after state has moved to enact laws requiring state-issued identification, curtailing ease of registration, and restrictions or virtual elimination of early voting.  Many of these restrictions have been enacted by Republican dominated state legislatures, and have been aimed to suppress the votes of African-American and Latino voters for political reasons.  On a larger level, in the recent landmark Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder, a conservative dominated court eviscerated the preclearance requirements of Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  In many ways, we are entering a new era of Jim Crow as far as voting rights go for minority populations in the United States.  Will a poll tax be next? Some argue we might be heading in that direction.

Yesterday, in an important judicial decision, the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rendered an important decision overturning North Carolina's voting ID laws passed in 2013.  What is really striking about the court's decision is the court's findings and language rebuking the Republican dominated North Carolina legislature.  The court notes that North Carolina's law was enacted "with racially discriminatory intent" to target African-American voters.  The court stated that North Carolina's measures to require ID's, restrict same-day registration, out-of-precinct provisional voting, and early voting "target African-Americans with almost surgical precision" and "imposes cures for problems that don't exist."

Voting rights in this country are under attack.  Too many people have literally died to obtain the franchise, we must demand that politicians stop playing games with our right to vote.  More importantly, we must not get complacent, but remain vigilant in exercising our voting rights.  I encourage you to read the full story below:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/29/politics/north-carolina-voter-id/index.html