In particular, the court found that North Carolina lawmakers requested data on racial differences in voting behaviors in the state. "This data showed that African Americans disproportionately lacked the most common kind of photo ID, those issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)," the judges wrote.
So the legislators made it so that the only acceptable forms of voter identification were the ones disproportionately used by white people. "With race data in hand, the legislature amended the bill to exclude many of the alternative photo IDs used by African Americans," the judges wrote. "The bill retained only the kinds of IDs that white North Carolinians were more likely to possess."
The data also showed that black voters were more likely to make use of early voting — particularly the first seven days out of North Carolina's 17-day voting period. So lawmakers eliminated these seven days of voting. "After receipt of this racial data, the General Assembly amended the bill to eliminate the first week of early voting, shortening the total early voting period from seventeen to ten days," the court found.
So it looks like they had a good idea (voter ID law) then added some things that intentionally targeted black voters, as you said. Even this conservative site agrees:
I’m going to withhold judgment for now and see what happens, but this isn’t good. It’s rather indefensible—and makes zero sense since this is already a popular policy proposal. Heck, even 65 percent of black Americans agree that you should produce some sort of identification before voting. North Carolina is already a state that pretty much splits right down the middle in terms of voting patterns. It’s also a state that breaks late for either party on Election Day. During a presidential year, with Clinton at the top of the Democratic ticket—you can be sure that this, coupled with the news that North Carolina Republicans might have used data to enact race-based provisions on voter ID, is sure going to fire up Democrats in the state. It could reverberate throughout the whole South, where Clinton does phenomenally well with Democrats, especially black voters. They’re the ones that gave her the edge over Sanders in the primaries.
Still, it doesn’t mean that conservatives should stop pushing for voter ID laws. In principle, they’re good to have during our elections. At the same time, we also have to call out our own side when they act stupidly. Regardless of the outcome, it’s not good. The Democrats have a nice narrative to fundraise off of, and you can bet that MSNBC will be all over this story.
From what I've read...the "justification" for the laws, at least in NC, were unfounded claims of voter fraud. False pretext.
It can't be ignored that some of these states have a legacy of disfranchisement of Blacks. Which is why the Voting Rights Act was needed in the first place. No sooner were alterations made to the VRA in 2013, did these new voting laws come into affect
Falls right into the racist Republican meme that Dem.s trot out, whether it's case of partisan politics or blatant racism.
You are correct that NC is one of those states with a history of disenfranchising Blacks, and sadly and evidently, there are enough of them in the NC Republican Party to continue that tradition. It would be interesting to find out what was going on in the heads of those who wrote the law.
I would kind of disagree with you on the claim of lack of justification and the unfounded claims of voter fraud. As I've written, the Left commonly makes that claim because of lack of prosecutions, not because it doesn't exist. For example, Justice Dept. Civil Rights Division attorney J. Christian Adams was planning on charging members of the New Black Panther Party with intimidation of a voting place in Philadelphia but was overruled by Justice Dept. heads (then led by Eric Holder). Adams and his supervisor both resigned over this in what they considered a discriminatory prevention of justified prosecution. So even though in this case, like many others, there is evidence that it happens, but very few prosecutions. I can't saw whether or not it's a problem in NC, but it is a national problem and ensuring voter integrity is a good thing. So I think we both agree on this, that voter ID is good, but disenfranchisement isn't.
