From Reuters:
North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper on Friday vetoed a Republican-authored bill requiring voters to present photo identification, saying it would disenfranchise poor, minority and elderly voters. Republicans have a large enough majority in the state legislature to override Cooper’s veto until January, when several Democrats who won seats in November will take office.
Some background from Voice of America:
Republicans have passed voter ID legislation twice, but they’ve been derailed both times. Federal judges struck down a wide-ranging 2013 elections law, which contained several voting restrictions, writing it was passed with “racially discriminatory intent” by targeting black residents with “almost surgical precision.”
Undeterred and rejecting the ruling as political hyperbole, GOP lawmakers decided to submit the voter ID question directly to voters. More than 30 other states require some form of identification to vote. Along with a successful November referendum in Arkansas, four states now have constitutional provisions addressing photo ID.
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