By MICHAEL BIESECKER and PETE YOST
FILE – In a June 30, 1982 file photo, President Ronald Reagan signs an expansion of the 1965 Voting Rights Bill during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. The Justice Department will sue the state of North Carolina for alleged racial discrimination over tough new voting rules, the latest effort by the Obama administration to fight back against a Supreme Court decision that struck down the most powerful part of the landmark Voting Rights Act and freed southern states from strict federal oversight of their elections. North Carolina has a new law scaling back the period for early voting and imposing stringent voter identification requirements. It is among at least five Southern states adopting stricter voter ID and other election laws. (AP Photo, File)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Republican governor and GOP lawmakers are vowing to fight a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department challenging the state’s tough new elections law on the grounds it disproportionately impacts minority voters.
Gov. Pat McCrory says the federal complaint filed Monday is an overreach and without merit. McCrory says he has hired private lawyers to help defend the new law from what he suggested was a partisan attack by President Barack Obama’s Democratic administration.
North Carolina’s new law cuts early voting by a week, ends same-day voter registration and includes a stringent photo ID requirement.
More than 70 percent of African-Americans who cast a ballot in North Carolina during the past two presidential elections voted early. Studies show minority voters are also more likely to lack a driver’s license.
