Voter Suppression

Federal Judge Restores Thousands of Purged Voters

Written by SK Ashby

In case you missed it, a federal judge delivered good news in North Carolina on Friday night.

U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs restored the registration of over 6,000 voters who were purged through "no fault of their own."

“Voter enfranchisement cannot be sacrificed when citizens through no fault of their own have been removed from the voter rolls,” Biggs concluded, writing that “the balance of the equities and public interest factors weigh decidedly in favor of protecting eligible voters who are being removed from the voter rolls.” She held that North Carolina must ensure that the purged voters are able to vote in the upcoming election so long as they remain otherwise eligible.

Notably, you may recall that Judge Biggs described the state GOP's voter purging operation as "insane" and said it looked like something out of the early 1900s.

Republicans were using a dubious state law that allows anyone to challenge anyone else's voter registration by gathering mail addressed to them that was marked as undelivered.

Judge Biggs only ordered registration restored in three mostly-black counties that were targeted, but the potential for abuse is so blatant I expect this will be more widely challenged after the election. I also expect Republicans in other states will look to adopt similar systems.

We wouldn't be having this discussion if Chief Justice John Roberts had not declared that racism is over.