U.S. top court allows North Carolina voting restrictions

[October 09, 2014]  By Lawrence Hurley
 
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed North Carolina's new voting restrictions, considered among the nation's most stringent, to go into effect.

The court, with two of the nine justices dissenting, granted a last-minute request by state officials seeking to block an appeals court ruling that suspended parts of a new state voting law.

The state objected to the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' conclusion that same-day registration should be restored and provisional voting reinstated for voters casting ballots outside their normal precincts.

The high court's action means the appeals court's decision will not go into effect and the two provisions will not be available to voters in the Nov. 4 elections.

The high court's order did not indicate how many justices voted to grant the stay. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

In her dissent, Ginsburg noted that North Carolina enacted the new law after the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision issued in June 2013, struck down a key part of the federal Voting Rights Act, which was aimed at protecting minority voting rights.

She wrote that North Carolina's "heavy reliance" in its court filings on high African-American turnout in the 2014 primary elections was of limited significance, in part because one of the three open congressional seats is a majority-nonwhite district.

The law was passed by the state's Republican-led legislature in 2013.

The state's Nov. 4 elections include a closely contested U.S. Senate race that could be key in deciding whether Republicans gain control of the chamber.

Expressing disappointment that the Supreme Court allowed to take effect what it termed a "massive voter suppression law," the North Carolina NAACP said that black voters there had for years relied on same-day registration and provisional ballots.

"Eliminating these measures will cause irreparable harm of denying citizens their right to vote in the November election – a right that, once lost, can never be recovered," Reverend William Barber, president of the state NAACP, said in a statement.

The State Board of Elections reminded voters that the deadline to register is now on Friday and advised that the more than 4 million voter guides mailed to residents are accurate.

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, a Republican, hailed the ruling on what he termed a "popular and common sense" measure.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Additional reporting by Jonathan Kaminsky in New Orleans; Editing by Sandra Maler and Eric Walsh)

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