If a Democratic judiciary strikes down popular policies just approved by the voters themselves, most will see the Democrats as the party hostile to popular sovereignty, not the Republicans.
A Wake County judge has thrown out N.C. constitutional amendments requiring photo identification for voters and lowering the cap on the state’s income tax rate. Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins ruled the amendments were unconstitutional because, in his view, the legislators who placed it on the ballot were “usurpers,” elected illegally. Collins noted the legislative...
Republican legislative leaders say the NAACP deliberately omitted them from a federal lawsuit seeking to kill newly enacted voter ID legislation. They are asking the court to add them as defendants so they can fight to keep the law in place. Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, filed a motion...
North Carolina’s new voter ID law is headed to court. This week the N.C. General Assembly overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s Dec. 14 veto of Senate Bill 824, Implementation of Voter I.D. Constitutional Amendment. Now, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and the N.C. NAACP are suing over allegations of racial discrimination and burdens on voting...
The N.C. House voted 72-40 Wednesday to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of Senate Bill 824, legislation implementing a constitutional amendment mandating voters present approved state-approved photo identification. The Senate’s vote Tuesday was 32-13, so the measure will become law. Debate in the House broke along partisan lines. Republicans argued that the legislation honored the...
Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday, Dec. 18 he would veto a bill returning the Bipartisan Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement to separate agencies over concerns about a provision related to campaign finance investigations. But he would wait to issue the veto, hoping the legislature will pass a new version of the bill removing the...
As expected, Gov. Roy Cooper Friday vetoed Senate Bill 824, a measure implementing the voter identification requirement enacted in November by voters in a constitutional referendum. In his veto message, Cooper called the measure “sinister and cynical.” “It was designed to suppress the rights of minority, poor and elderly voters. The cost of disenfranchising those...
Once again lawmakers would require a primary if the state elections board calls for a new election in the 9th Congressional District after they scrapped the provision yesterday during a committee meeting. Wednesday, the House and Senate approved House Bill 1029, a conference report which not only would restore the Bipartisan Board of Elections and...
Republican lawmakers unveiled a new bill at a Tuesday, Dec. 11 news conference which would return the Bipartisan Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement to two separate boards after years of court battles over the merger. And then they made a major change while the bill was in committee. Sponsors initially included a controversial provision...
With little debate, the N.C. Senate Thursday morning sent Senate Bill 854, the measure implementing the constitutional amendment requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls, to Gov. Roy Cooper. The vote to concur with the amended House version of the bill was 25-7. Unlike the House debate on the measure, which was heated...
Too broad. Too narrow. Too lenient. Too stringent. These descriptors were tossed around the N.C. House floor during a Dec. 5 debate over a bill which codifies a new constitutional amendment requiring voters to present photo identification at the ballot box. Fifty-five percent of North Carolina voters on Nov. 6 affirmed a legislative proposal to...
