Federal District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder denied the Defense team’s motion to dismiss the case in a brief hearing Friday morning. A trial is tentatively scheduled for late January 2016.
Voter ID One Part of a Complex Law
The voter ID requirement is perhaps the best-known provision of VIVA, a complex and controversial overhaul of North Carolina voting laws passed by the state’s General Assembly in 2013.
VIVA also cut the number of early voting days, eliminated same-day voter registration, ended a program to preregister 16-and 17-year-olds and eliminated out-of-precinct ballots, among other changes.
A trio of lawsuits brought by the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, the Department of Justice and other plaintiffs challenged those provisions in July. Judge Schroeder has not yet ruled on that case.
Last-Minute Modification Leads to Negotiations
In its original form, the ID provision required voters to show one of eight state-approved IDs before casting a ballot, starting in 2016. The original ID requirement was included in the provisions challenged by the three lawsuits.
But in late June the North Carolina General Assembly unexpectedly passed a modification to the voter ID provision. Signed into law by Governor Pat McCrory on June 22, SL 2015-103 allows voters without an ID to sign an affidavit called a “reasonable impediment declaration” and cast a provisional ballot.
With the trial just three weeks away, Plaintiffs’ attorney asked Judge Schroeder to exclude the ID provision from the trial. Defense attorneys said all claims against the ID provision should be dismissed.
On June 26, Judge Schroeder agreed to exclude consideration of voter ID from the trial and ordered both sides to assess the effects of the new legislation on their claims.
New Primary Schedule Adds Time Pressure to Trial
A flurry of emails, conferences and status reports during August and September raised hopes that the two sides could settle the ID issue out of court, but by September 29 negotiations stalled.
The two sides returned to court Friday so Judge Schroeder could rule on the Defense team’s motion to dismiss.
Judge Schroeder denied the motion to dismiss, but new deadlines are putting pressure on the trial.
In late September, the General Assembly voted to move North Carolina’s primary to March 15.
Schroeder reminded both sides it had been over 120 days since the passage of SL 2015-103 and “Time’s a-wastin’.”
He urged both sides to commit to a brief trial and “come to a resolution that helps everybody.”
