On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law that required states that discriminated against certain voters in the 1960s to have new voting laws approved by the federal government. One day later, the North Carolina General Assembly – newly freed from the “preclearance” requirement – introduced a law that created a voter ID requirement, cut back on early voting and erected other barriers to voting.
Legislators asked their staff for information on how African-Americans voted and then included provisions that would make it harder for them to vote. Hundreds of thousands of voters lacked the required ID, and the law is estimated to have caused 30,000 fewer voters to participate in the 2014 election.
The above excerpt was originally published in The News & Observer.
Click here to view the full article.