The presentation of testimony in the preliminary injunction hearing against the Voter ID Law wrapped up today! The judge will make his decision soon. At issue were three (3) sections of the law; 1) The elimination of same day voting (registering to vote and voting at the same time), 2) The elimination of out of precinct voting (voting at a polling place other than the one assigned to you by Board of Elections), 3) The shortening of the time allowed for early voting (shortened from 17 days to 10 days). The plaintiff argued that by implementing this law, minority voters in North Carolina would be disproportionally disenfranchised, basically, they said, African American voters would find it harder to register to vote and ultimately, harder to vote. What the plaintiff failed to mention in four (4) days of testimony was that the majority of the 50 states dont offer ANY of these options for voting! The proceedings ended to today, in what I though was brilliant fashion, with the lead council for the defense testifying to the court that African Americans voter turnout was LOWER in 2010 primary elections (the last midterm election with a Senate race at the top of the ballot), WITH those three voting options in place, than the 2014 primary, WITHOUT those options! Were I a betting man, Id put the odds of the judge siding with the defense at 3:2. Well know for sure...soon!
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 12:16:00 +0000