Court: N.C. law could cut black voting participation

RALEIGH, N.C., Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Some provisions in North Carolina's new voting law appear to discriminate against black voters, a federal appeals court said Wednesday.

The court issued a preliminary injunction requiring North Carolina to allow same-day registration for the November election and to count provisional ballots cast by voters who went to the wrong precinct. Other parts of the law were allowed to stand, including a reduction in the number of days for early voting, and allowing county officials to extend voting hours in precincts where large numbers of people have shown up or there are other problems.

In a 2-1 decision, the court overruled a district judge who refused to grant an injunction sought by the League of Women Voters and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"Setting aside the basic truth that even one disenfranchised voter -- let alone several thousand -- is too many, what matters for purposes of Section 2 is not how many minority voters are being denied equal electoral opportunities but simply that any minority voter is being denied equal electoral opportunities," Judge James Wynn wrote in the majority opinion.

Judge Diana Gribbon Motz agreed with state officials who said that granting an injunction five weeks before election day with absentee ballots already coming in would be a burden to election officials.

"In addition to the burden it places on the state, an about-face at this juncture runs the very real risk of confusing voters who will receive incorrect and conflicting information about when and how they can register and cast their ballots," she said.

"The evidence clearly showed that, under North Carolina's voter suppression law, African-Americans would have faced higher barriers to the ballot this November," said Rev. William Barber, state president of the NAACP. "The court took an important step to ensure that this election will remain free, fair and accessible to all North Carolina voters."

The state is expected to ask for an en banc hearing by the full court.