Supreme Court refuses to consider reinstating N.C. voter-ID law, found to have partisan bias

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday it will not consider "reinstating North Carolina’s 2013 elections law which includes a voter-ID requirement and other restrictions on voting," Anne Blythe reports for The Charlotte Observer. "The law called for voters to show specific kinds of photo identification and prohibited voters from registering to vote and casting ballots on the same day. It sought to eliminate out-of-precinct voting as well as preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds who would turn 18 by Election Day. And it eliminated a week of early voting."

Voters wait in line for early voting in Raleigh, N.C.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016. Charlotte Observer photo by Chuck Liddy.

The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the law in July as biased. Critics of the law, which was passed by the Republican-controlled legislature, said it discriminated against African American voters, making it harder for them to cast ballots, most likely in favor of Democrats. North Carolina had one of the largest rural populations among the states in the 2010 census: 3,233,727, or 34 percent of its total, second only to Texas.