League of Women Voters Prevails in Major Federal Voting Rights Case

Dear League member,

We won!

On Friday, July 29th, a federal appeals court sided with the League in our lawsuit against the state of North Carolina and overturned one of the worst voter-discrimination laws in the entire country.

This is an overwhelming victory—not just for the League but, far more important, the hundreds of thousands of voters in North Carolina whose right to vote had been imperiled by the new law.

And it’s a measure of the tremendous impact committed supporters like you are having in our ongoing campaign to protect voters’ rights.

Thank you for standing with us!

The court barred North Carolina from requiring photo IDs and ordered the state to restore a week of early voting and pre-registration and maintain same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting.

In finding that the new law would disproportionately impact communities of color, the judges noted in their decision that “we can only conclude that the North Carolina General Assembly enacted the challenged provisions of the law with discriminatory intent.”

Chris Carson, president of the League of Women Voters applauded that statement: “We are grateful to the Court of Appeals for seeing this bill for what it was: a race-based, chilling attempt to silence the voices of eligible voters.”

The North Carolina law was one of many passed in states across the country shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the heart of the Voting Rights Act back in 2013.

Friday’s decision was the third major victory for voters’ rights in recent weeks, following similar decisions against anti-voter laws in Wisconsin and Texas.

I hope you are as heartened by this news as all of us here at the League were when we heard it on Friday—and I hope you feel a real sense of pride in contributing to this victory for democracy!

Thanks again for all that you do!