Courts make photo ID less likely in N Carolina 2020 voting

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina's newest voter photo identification law seems flawed by “discriminatory intent” and should have been blocked months ago, a state appeals court ruled on Tuesday, creating another obstacle to implementing a requirement now demanded by the state constitution.

The ruling doesn't change the current process for early in-person voting, which is already under way in the March 3 primary. That's because a federal judge already granted a request by the state NAACP and local chapters to block the ID requirement from being imposed, at least through the primary.

With the state and federal preliminary injunctions in place, chances are dwindling that the voter ID requirement will be carried out in any 2020 election.

The ruling by the three-judge Court of Appeals panel was unanimous, reversing last July's lower court decision that refused to prevent implementation of the photo ID requirement approved by the Republican-controlled General Assembly while a challenge goes to trial. The law came swiftly after voters added an ID mandate to the state constitution in November 2018.

A majority of judges on the lower state court had declared that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate they were likely to win at trial on claims that the December 2018 law designed to implement the amendment showed discriminatory intent against African American voters. Republican lawmakers said this law expanded the types of qualifying IDs and made it easier for registered voters without IDs to have their votes counted, making it very different from a 2013 voter ID law that federal courts previously overturned as discriminatory.

But the Court of Appeals panel disagreed, saying the evidence shows otherwise, pointing in part to rapid passage of the December 2018 law and the absence of certain public assistance IDs on the...