Alabama
In 2018, critics have accused the state of intentionally disenfranchising non-white voters, aided by the Supreme Court which, in its
Shelby County v. Holder 5-4 decision, allowed jurisdictions with a history of suppression of minority voters to avoid continuing to abide by federal preclearance requirements for changes in voter registration and casting of ballots.
[73] Within 24 hours of the ruling,
Alabama implemented a 2011 law requiring specific types of photo I.D. to be presented. The state closed DMV offices in eight of ten counties which had the highest percentage black population, but only three in the ten counties with the lowest black population. In 2016, Alabama's Secretary of State (SOS)
John Merrill began a process to require proof of citizenship from voters, despite Merrill saying he did not know of a single case where a non-citizen had voted. Purging of voter rolls is another method of disenfranchisement and it was done so aggressively in Alabama. Even four-term Republican Representative
Mo Brooks who, in March 2018, was rated the House's least bipartisan member by
The Lugar Center and who was a candidate in 2017, for the seat relinquished by
Jeff Sessions, found that he himself had been purged from the rolls. Merrill also refused to publicize the passage of legislation that enabled some 60,000 Alabaman former felons to vote.
[74].
[75] Alabama's new requirement regarding proof of citizenship, had been approved by federal
Election Assistance Commission Director Brian Newby, an associate of voter disenfranchisement advocate, Kansas SOS and Republican Gubernatorial nominee, Kris Kobach.
[76] Kobach was cited as a primary author of
Alabama HB 56, passed in 2010, which was described as tougher than Arizona's law.
[77] Much of the law was invalidated on appeal at various levels of appeals courts or voluntarily withdrawn or reworded.
[78] [79][80]
North Carolina
In 2013, the state House passed a bill that requires voters to show a photo ID issued by
North Carolina, a passport, or a military identification card to begin in 2016. Out-of-state drivers licenses were to be accepted only if the voter registered within 90 days of the election, and university photo identification was not acceptable.
[61] In July 2016, a three-judge panel of
the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a trial court decision in a number of consolidated actions and struck down the law's photo ID requirement, finding that the new voting provisions targeted African Americans "with almost surgical precision," and that the legislators had acted with clear "discriminatory intent" in enacting strict election rules, shaping the rules based on data they received about African-American registration and voting patterns.
[62][63] On May 15, 2017, the law officially died when the US Supreme Court rejected efforts to review the Appeals Court ruling.
[64]
