4th Circuit: Federal judge was wrong to block voter ID

ELIZABETHTOWN — Voter ID being required when visiting the polls isn’t back in place yet, but a federal appeals court has certainly sent it on the way.

The federal judge appointed by President Barack Obama made a mistake in her ruling a year ago this month. On Wednesday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously with bipartisan support said Loretta Biggs was wrong to block implementation of the constitional amendment favored by 55.5 percent of the state’s voters in the 2018 midterm election.

Because of Biggs, the law was not in place for any of the 2020 election cycle. What happens next are more trials in front of the federal District Court judge and in state courts during 2021, all challenging the implementation of the law requiring use of a photo ID in order to vote. An appeal is also expected by groups that sued to get it into the courts.

The ruling in February by a state appeals court that blocks the requirement remains in place. Those three judges, like Biggs, were all Democrats.

Wednesday’s ruling came from the three-member panel of Judges Pamela Harris, Marvin Quattlebaum and Julius Richardson. Harris is a Democrat appointed by Obama, and Quattlebaum and Richardson are Republicans appointed by President Donald Trump.

Richardson wrote the opinion, and in it he cited how much things had changed since the law was first introduced in 2013 — in contrast to Biggs writing on Dec. 31, 2019, that the same legislators were still in office, racial data was still on their minds, and the state had a “sordid history of racial discrimination and voter suppression” that continues to present times.

Richardson’s opinion says the voters’ voice has now been included, supplemental laws expanding the qualifying types of ID were put in place, and registered voters without IDs could still have votes counted. When it passed to go onto the 2018 ballot, state legislative Democrats were among its supporters, and Richardson noted that, too.

“The 2018 Voter ID Law is more protective of the right to vote than other states’ voter ID laws that courts have approved,” Richardson wrote.

More than 30 states — a supermajority — have some form of voter ID laws.

Critics at the time complained that Biggs was a singular voice blocking the will of the voters. The bill had a higher percentage of support from North Carolinians than any governor’s race since Democrat Mike Easley won 55.6 percent of the vote in 2004.

Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said the mandate puts needless obstacles in the way of people otherwise legally qualified to vote.

Photo ID is required for most significant transactions throughout the state and country, including picking up medicine, school registrations, and obtaining a Social Security card among others.