Gov. McCrory quietly signs Republican-backed bill making sweeping changes to NC voting
North Carolina’s governor signed sweeping voting reforms into law on Monday, approving a package of changes that drew stinging criticism and a legal challenge from the NAACP and others.
The American Civil Liberties Union joined two other groups in announcing they were filing suit against key parts of the reform package, hours after Gov. Pat McCrory signaled in a statement he had signed it without a ceremony.
Republicans who backed the legislation said it was meant to prevent voter fraud, which they claim is both rampant and undetected in North Carolina. Independent voting rights groups joined Democrats and libertarians in suggesting the true goal was to suppress voter turnout, especially among blacks, the young, the elderly and the poor.
“It is a trampling on the blood, sweat and tears of the martyrs — black and white — who fought for voting rights in this country,” said the Rev. William Barber, president of the state chapter of the NAACP. “It puts McCrory on the wrong side of history.”
<snip>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/nc-governor-signs-sweeping-voting-reform-into-law-aclu-other-opponents-file-legal-challenge/2013/08/12/32e1148c-0395-11e3-bfc5-406b928603b2_story.html
