Judge Keeps N.C. Voter Registration Case in Federal Court

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled against a Republican-led attempt to remove more than 225,000 voter registrations in North Carolina, keeping the case in federal court after a district judge attempted to send the case back to state court.

The Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party have requested the courts order the state's elections board to remove 225,000 voters from the state registration rolls, claiming those voters are "ineligible" to vote in the state.

Republicans claim the North Carolina State Board of Elections failed to properly register these voters by using a form that did not require a driver's license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number.

Earlier this month a federal judge in Wilmington sent the GOP claim to a state court because of an alleged state constitutional violation, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, ruled this week the district judge was "improper" in sending the case back to a lower court, meaning the case will remain in federal court.

"Here, the State Board refused to perform Plaintiffs' requested act — striking certain registered voters from North Carolina's voter rolls — on the ground that doing so within 90 days of a federal election would violate…the Civil Rights Act of 1964…and the National Voter Registration Act of 1993," Judge Nicole Berner, a Joe Biden appointee, wrote in the appeals panel's ruling.

"These are ‘law[s] providing for equal rights,'" the judge wrote, noting the existence of a statute that allows for the removal of ineligible names from voter rolls. "We thus reverse the district court's remand order and return this matter to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion."

In a concurring opinion by Judge Albert Diaz, a Barack Obama appointee, the court found that the RNC and North Carolina GOP proved the threshold for standing in the case "made by the barest of threads," adding, "This lawsuit began in state court before being removed quickly to federal court. That removal should have prompted a fundamental jurisdictional question: Does the plaintiffs' complaint plead the necessary … standing ‘to get in the federal courthouse door?"

He concluded, "The district court's opinion didn't consider this issue."

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