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Truthmatters
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-n-c-counties-must-restore-voters-illegally-purged-from-rolls/
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A federal judge ordered three North Carolina counties to restore thousands of voter registrations canceled too close to Election Day after the NAACP sued over the removals.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs issued the preliminary injunction Friday after an emergency hearing earlier in the week on NAACP allegations that those counties -- and possibly others -- purged voter rolls through a process disproportionately targeting blacks.
Biggs said the three counties must restore voter registrations canceled in the 90 days preceding the election because of a federal law prohibiting blanket removals that close to Election Day. She concluded that Cumberland, Beaufort and Moore counties had gone about “systematically purging between 3,500 and 4,000 voters from registration rolls” since August.
Early voting ends Saturday in the critical swing state, which the NAACP has previously sued over other voter access issues.
North Carolina State Board of Election: Polling Place Search
The voters’ names were removed through challenges filed by activists, which the NAACP said was illegal because of the proximity to the election. Challengers in Moore and Cumberland counties include volunteers with the Voter Integrity Project, a group that says it aims to guard against voter fraud.
But Biggs took issue with the process in her ruling.
“Voter enfranchisement cannot be sacrificed when citizens through no fault of their own have been removed from the voter rolls,” she said. “Moreover, electoral integrity is enhanced, not diminished, when all citizens who are eligible to vote are allowed to exercise that right free from interference and burden unnecessarily imposed by others.”
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A federal judge ordered three North Carolina counties to restore thousands of voter registrations canceled too close to Election Day after the NAACP sued over the removals.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs issued the preliminary injunction Friday after an emergency hearing earlier in the week on NAACP allegations that those counties -- and possibly others -- purged voter rolls through a process disproportionately targeting blacks.
Biggs said the three counties must restore voter registrations canceled in the 90 days preceding the election because of a federal law prohibiting blanket removals that close to Election Day. She concluded that Cumberland, Beaufort and Moore counties had gone about “systematically purging between 3,500 and 4,000 voters from registration rolls” since August.
Early voting ends Saturday in the critical swing state, which the NAACP has previously sued over other voter access issues.
North Carolina State Board of Election: Polling Place Search
The voters’ names were removed through challenges filed by activists, which the NAACP said was illegal because of the proximity to the election. Challengers in Moore and Cumberland counties include volunteers with the Voter Integrity Project, a group that says it aims to guard against voter fraud.
But Biggs took issue with the process in her ruling.
“Voter enfranchisement cannot be sacrificed when citizens through no fault of their own have been removed from the voter rolls,” she said. “Moreover, electoral integrity is enhanced, not diminished, when all citizens who are eligible to vote are allowed to exercise that right free from interference and burden unnecessarily imposed by others.”
