In 2013, the North Carolina legislature passed a bill restricting ease of voting. Specifically, it eliminated a lengthy early voting period; it ended the ability of 17-year-olds to pre-register (so that they would automatically be on the rolls as of their 18th birthday); it ended the ability of voters to cast a provisional ballot away from their home precinct; it ended same-day registration; and it required voters at the polls to show photo-ID (on the ID issue, the 2013 law had been very strict, but in 2015 the legislature had softened it and let voters who swore they could not get such ID vote anyway).
On July 29, 2016, all of these restrictions were enjoined by the 4th Circuit. On August 31, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to upset the action of the 4th Circuit. The case in the U.S. Supreme Court is State of North Carolina v North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, 16A168. The state had asked for U.S. Supreme Court action on August 15. The U.S. Supreme Court had asked the NAACP to respond by August 25, and the NAACP complied. So, after pondering for six days, the U.S. Supreme Court split 4-4 on whether to sustain the 4th circuit. In a tie, the ruling of the lower court stands.
It happens that all three members of the 4th circuit panel had been appointees of Democratic presidents. If, by chance, the 4th circuit panel had consisted of Republican appointees, probably the 4th circuit decision would have gone the other way. Then, if the NAACP had asked for U.S. Supreme Court help, that vote surely also would have been 4-4. This case illustrates that having a U.S. Supreme Court with only eight members causes outcomes to be determined by the Appeals Courts, and by the random events that determine which judges get any particular case. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news.
Each gerrymander robot party hack Prez appoints each SCOTUS robot party hack with the alleged advice and consent of the robot party hacks in the gerrymander USA Senate. Sorry – each State is a semi-permanent gerrymander area for Senate elections.
Result ALL SCOTUS robot party hacks — now 4 super leftwing Donkey HACKS and 4 rightwing Elephant HACKS. It shows.
The top Donkeys are quite intent on having the destruction of the States to make them useless — since 1932.
i.e. the top Donkeys want hoards of brain dead Donkey voters wiping out all Elephants in ALL offices.
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P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
The pre-registration requirement was to allow 16-17 year olds to “register”, not just 17 year olds. After pre-registration was removed from the law, 17 year olds were (and are) still able to register and vote in primaries if they turned 18 before the general election (just not on any referenda, they are given special primary ballots).
Pre-registration sounds great, but in practice, it was plagued with problems. I pre-registered the day I turned 16 as a Libertarian in Jackson County, and the person working in the office informed me that the voter registration would be put in an envelope, sealed, and reopened and put in the system when I was able to vote. I moved to another county when I turned 17, and changed my registration to Republican. The other county processed my registration right then, since the upcoming election was a primary for a general election which I would be able to vote. Then, just a few days before the primary, the first county opened the envelope and processed the registration form I filled out when I was 16, changing my registration from Rep to Lib. Thankfully, I was able to take care of the problem and vote in the Rep primary, but the lack of any clear procedures for county offices on how to handle pre-registrations is what caused the problem in the first place.