News Alert: NC NAACP Statement on Potential Discriminatory Voter ID Amendment

by Kathy Grear 06/08/2018

NC NAACP Statement on Potential Discriminatory Voter ID Amendment: Illegally Seated Legislators Seek Today to Enshrine Discrimination in the Constitution

RALEIGH, N.C. – Today GOP Caucus Speaker Tim Moore introduced a possible amendment to the NC Constitution (HB 1092) to require voters in the state to present additional identification to be able to cast a ballot.

While North Carolinians call on this body to put living wages on the ballot, to consider the plight of the poor, and to invest in our public schools– all actions which would help all North Carolinians–instead, the General Assembly has taken a step today to enshrine discrimination in North Carolina’s Constitution.

The NC NAACP already fought and won against the 2013 Monster Voter Suppression Law, including a photo voter ID provision in the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. In NC NAACP v. McCrory, the court found that the legislature “target[ed] African-Americans with almost surgical precision” and enacted the voter suppression law with “discriminatory intent.” Unrepentant, these same officials seek to revive that discriminatory strategy today.

Instead of protecting voters, North Carolina’s 2013 Voter ID law cheated honest citizens out of their vote, and forced us to relive an ugly chapter in our state’s history. Over 1,400 citizens lost their right to vote in the March 2016 primary when the ID law was illegally in effect.  This General Assembly knows this, and yet it continues to pursue voter suppression at every turn. We call on all North Carolinians to call your legislator to:

SAY NO TO HB 1092 AND DISCRIMINATION IN OUR CONSTITUTION.

Rev. T. Anthony Spearman, President of the NC NAACP State Conference, lead plaintiff in the Fourth Circuit legal case that invalidated the 2013 discriminatory Voter ID law, issued the following statement today:

“Federal and state courts have repeatedly ruled that stringent voter laws are being passed with minuscule or no evidence of need for them, and more importantly, with the intent or effect of suppressing the voting power of black, brown and poor white communities. If this General Assembly moves forward with this amendment scheme, the courts and the court of public opinion will find against them once again.

It was wrong in 2013, and it’s still wrong in 2018. There is no version of a photo ID law that won’t leave voters behind. We must end once and for all this period in North Carolina of “suppression sessions.” The people of North Carolina want to participate in an election in 2018 that is about policy that will change our lives, not politics that puts politicians schemes to remain in power above the democratic process, what is morally and constitutionally sound, and the sacred rights of the people.”