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Federal judge: North Carolina voter purge 'sounds like something that was put together in 1901'

By Joan McCarter
Thursday Nov 03, 2016 · 2:59 PM CST

North Carolina is at the wrong end of a pissed off judge over their voter suppression efforts, again.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/11/03/federal_judge_slams_north_carolina_voter_purge.html

U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs slammed an ongoing North Carolinian voter purge [ http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/11/02/justice_department_to_north_carolina_stop_purging_black_voters.html ] during a dramatic Wednesday hearing, telling county attorneys that she was “horrified” by the “insane” process by which voters could be removed from the rolls without their knowledge. “It almost looks like a cattle call, the way people are being purged,” Biggs said. “This sounds like something that was put together in 1901,” when the state used Jim Crow laws to prevent black citizens from casting a ballot.

Biggs called a hearing after the NAACP sued several North Carolina counties for purging nearly 6,700 voters—most of them black Democrats—from the rolls. These purges were legal under a state law that permits any person to revoke any other person’s voting rights. The process is simple: An individual gathers mail that was returned as undeliverable, then challenges the voter registration of residents at those addresses. If those voters do not appear at a county board of elections or return a notarized form, their voting rights are nullified.

You might remember the case of Grace Bell Hardison, the 100-year-old voter who got caught up in this scheme. She raised hell on the local media, and got her ballot back. Now Judge Biggs seems intent on getting everyone's ballots back. The NAACP brought this suit and the U.S. Justice Department filed a statement of interest in the case.

This isn't the first time the state has been slammed for clearly racist intent in their voter suppression schemes. This summer, the 4th Circuit Court was forceful in striking down the state's new voter ID laws, writing that it was clear that various provisions of North Carolina's law "target African Americans with almost surgical precision": "With race data in hand," the opinion reads, "the legislature amended the bill to exclude many of the alternative photo IDs used by African Americans. As amended, the bill retained only the kinds of IDs that white North Carolinians were more likely to possess."

Biggs didn't rule from the bench, but expect a decision to come down very soon since the election is just days away, and she's clearly a little bit worked up about it.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/3/1590762/-Federal-judge-North-Carolina-voter-purge-sounds-like-something-that-was-put-together-in-1901