RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge has blocked, for now, a new law recently approved by North Carolina lawmakers that tightens a rule on when a ballot cast by someone who is simultaneously registering to vote is removed from election counts.
The preliminary injunction from U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder tells elections workers they can’t nullify ballots by screening citizens who register and immediately vote during a 17-day period before a primary or general election through an altered method unless applicant protections are created.
Over 100,000 new registrants have sought “same-day registration” in North Carolina during each of the last two presidential general elections, so slight adjustments in the closely divided state could make a difference in this November’s elections for president, governor and other statewide positions. Early in-person voting — and thus same-day registration — for the March 5 primaries begins Feb. 15.
The new law is contained within broader voting administration legislation enacted by the Republican-controlled General Assembly in the fall over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto. It would, in part, remove a registrant’s ballot from the count after one mailed notice to the person’s address by election officials is returned as undeliverable, instead of two under the previous law.
The new provision has been challenged in at least three lawsuits. Schroeder’s 94-page ruling Sunday involved two of the lawsuits filed in October, one by the state and national Democratic parties and the other by national and local voter advocacy groups and a voter.
Schroeder, who was nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush, wrote that the one-mailer procedure doesn’t provide due-process protections for voters to learn that their registrations were rejected and to appeal the decision to officials so the ballots could still count.
The plaintiffs said the new procedure would increase…
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