North Dakota's voter-ID law barred by federal judge

"A federal judge on Monday barred North Dakota from enforcing the state’s strict voter identification-card law, adding to several recent federal court rulings that such laws may disenfranchise minority voters," Michael Wines reports for The New York Times. Similar rulings were made last week in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Kansas.

"Judge Daniel L. Hovland of the United States District Court for North Dakota issued a preliminary injunction against the law, which he said had made it difficult and sometimes impossible for some Native Americans on rural reservations to cast ballots," Wines writes. While the injunction did not strike down the law, North Dakota Secretary of State Alvin Jaeger indicated that "the state would not appeal the decision and that November’s election would revert to using less restrictive identification rules that were in force before the 2013 law was enacted."

"Like other voter-ID laws that have been challenged, the North Dakota statute was passed by a Republican-led legislature that asserted stronger measures were needed to curb voter fraud," Wines writes. "Democratic legislators said that it was intended solely to suppress voting among traditionally Democratic constituencies."