OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
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The Guardian
A landmark voting rights trial that opens in North Carolina on Monday will determine the way the 2016 presidential election is conducted in the state and could have long-lasting implications for the politics of the American south.The federal district court in Winston-Salem is expected to take at least two weeks to consider a legal challenge to the state’s recent changes to its voting laws, which are widely regarded to be among the most restrictive in the country. Republican governor Patrick McCrory, in his official capacity, and the state itself will be on trial, accused of intentionally discriminating against black voters in an attempt to drive down turnout within this traditionally Democratic-voting community.
The stakes are high in North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP v Patrick McCrory. Tens of thousands of voters could be impacted by its outcome in a state that backed Barack Obama in 2008 but opted for his opponent Mitt Romney four years later, both on the slightest of margins.
Al Jazeera America
The Federal court will hear a challenge on Monday to North Carolina's election laws that claims Republican-backed voting restrictions discriminate against black and Latino voters who tend to trend towards voting Democrat.Voting rights groups, backed by the U.S. Department of Justice, will assert that 2013 changes to election laws by the GOP-led state legislature were unlawful. Republicans say the changes were designed to prevent voter fraud.
"The outcome of this historic case in North Carolina will have an impact on voting rights across the nation," according to North Carolina's NAACP, which is organizing a march in Winston-Salem on Monday afternoon.
The case is being brought by the civil rights group, along with the League of Women Voters and the Department of Justice.
The 2013 election laws require voters to show certain forms of photo identification to cast a ballot, as well as other provisions.
Also at issue is a one week reduction in early voting, the elimination of pre-registration for 16 and 17 year-olds and the barring of same-day voter registration and provisional voting for voters casting ballots outside their normal precincts.
NPR
A federal trial in Winston-Salem, N.C., that begins Monday will have big implications for voting rights in the state and, potentially, across the country.The U.S. Justice Department and several groups are suing North Carolina over the sweeping election overhaul it passed two years ago, which narrowed the early voting period, among other provisions.
That early voting window had resulted in a noticeable uptick in the number of minority voters.
For decades in the state, black voter turnout lagged far behind white turnout. Then, in 2000, state lawmakers opened up an early voting period. In 2005, they said voters could cast ballots outside their assigned precinct. And in 2007, they enabled same-day registration.
Christian Science Monitor
A series of controversial North Carolina election reforms will go before federal court Monday. What Republican legislators see as necessary measures to prevent voter fraud, other groups see as a masked strategy to whitewash the voting pool.The laws stiffen photo ID requirements and restrict early voting, same-day registration, pre-registration for minors, and out-of-district voting policies. Opponents, with the support of the Department of Justice, say these policies unfairly target black and Latino voters, who tend to vote for Democratic candidates, Reuters reported.
For Republicans in favor of the laws, the movement to address voter fraud took hold when data was released showing that more than 35,000 people may have “double-voted,” or voted in both North Carolina and some other state, in 2012. The data tracked instances of voters registered in multiple states with the same name and birthday.
...
However, analysis by election scholar Justin Levitt and political scientist Michael McDonald calls into question the conflation of the data with voter fraud. Their study challenged the initial claims by demonstrating the surprising likelihood of two people having the same name and birthday. Election experts also pointed to the high frequency of clerical errors in polling data, according to MSNBC.