Tipsheet

North Carolina NAACP Files Lawsuit to Reinstate Canceled Voter Registrations

The North Carolina NAACP claims Republicans are trying to suppress the minority vote in the Tar Heel State. So, group is suing the state to stop county election boards from marking voter registrations void. 

Election officials felt the need to cancel several registrations because mailings to voters' addresses came back as undeliverable. Yet, the NAACP is arguing it is an act of voter suppression and a violation of the National Voting Registration Act. Black voters account for 65 percent of the canceled registrations and the NAACP is demanding that they all be restored.

“The Tar Heel state is ground zero in the intentional surgical efforts by Republicans — or extremists who have hijacked the Republican Party — to suppress the vote of voters,” said Rev. William Barber, the North Carolina NAACP president, on Monday. “The NAACP is defending the rights of all North Carolinians to participate in this election.”

This isn't the first time voter ID laws have made news in North Carolina. Earlier this year, a court struck down a voter ID law passed by the state legislature, concluding that it had been drafted with the intent to discriminate against minority voters.

Gov. Pat McCrory (R) requested the court ruling be delayed, but his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court.