WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- North Carolina's process for challenging voters' registration seems to harken to a bygone era when fewer safeguards were in place, a federal judge said Wednesday as she presided over a lawsuit that alleges voters are being purged unfairly.
Lawyers for North Carolina countered that state data shows only a sliver of names have been removed from county rolls in the past two years -- fewer than 7,000 statewide out of 6.8 million registered voters.
The comments came during an emergency hearing over NAACP allegations that at least three counties purged voter rolls through a process that disproportionately targets blacks
Early voting has already begun in North Carolina, a critical swing state that the NAACP has sued before over issues such as voter identification. So far, black voter turnout in the state has lagged the 2012 presidential election.
Voters are being removed less than 90 days before an election because of challenges filed by activists, which the NAACP says is illegal under federal law. However, state officials say the process complements federal law and preserves voters' due-process rights.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs said more than once the challenge process sounds "insane."
"This sounds like something that was put together in 1901," she told lawyers for the state.
The NAACP lawsuit cites Cumberland, Moore and Beaufort counties, where activists have challenged thousands of voters' names. People filing challenges in Cumberland and Moore counties include volunteers with the Voter Integrity Project, which says it wants to reduce the potential for voter fraud.
In most cases cited by the lawsuit, mail sent to an address is returned as undeliverable, which county boards can accept as evidence that the voter no longer lives there.
Under state law, any voter can challenge another county resident's registration, resulting in a hearing where the challenger presents evidence, according to a court filing by the state. If local officials find probable cause, the challenged voter is given notice and another hearing is held. A person who doesn't rebut the evidence can be removed from voter rolls.
Elections officials and the challengers say few people attend the hearings; many have moved and haven't updated their registration, while others have died.
James Bernier, a lawyer for North Carolina, said a state database shows nearly 6,700 challenged voters were removed in eight counties statewide in the past two years. A court filing by the state said Cumberland County had the most removals with nearly 5,600, followed by Moore with 790. Beaufort had removed 63.
However, there appears to have been an uptick in challenges in recent months. The director of the State Board of Elections, Kim Westbrook Strach, said in a letter to the NAACP at least 4,500 challenges were filed in the three counties in August and September. The letter doesn't say how many of those recent challenges were successful.
Ahead of Wednesday's hearing, the U.S. Justice Department said in a court filing that if the NAACP allegations are true, they represent violations of the federal Voting Rights Act.
The Justice Department writes that counties can't remove voters "using only mail returned as undeliverable and without following specific required procedures," nor can they carry out "systematic removals within 90 days of a Federal election."
The federal government said counties can't circumvent those rules simply by holding "a perfunctory administrative proceeding to consider evidence produced by a mass mailing."
The fight over voter challenges comes during a protracted battle over voter access in the state. Over the summer, a federal court struck down much of a 2013 elections law, saying the GOP-controlled General Assembly had disproportionately targeted black voters. The ruling effectively lengthened the early voting period by a week and eliminated a provision requiring photo ID to cast ballots in person.
That ruling sparked disagreements among Democrats and Republicans on local elections boards about the number of sites and hours for early voting.
Through Tuesday, blacks' early voting participation in North Carolina lagged behind the same point in the 2012 election by 13 per cent, according to an analysis by Catawba College political scientist Michael Bitzer. Black voters have made up some ground since more early voting sites opened last week, but he said it's unclear if they can close the gap by the time early voting ends Saturday.
Bitzer believes the difference is largely due to less enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton's race against Donald Trump than for President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election bid, but the uneven rollout of early voting sites also contributed. He said he wasn't familiar enough with the new NAACP allegations to weigh their effect on turnout.
"I have to think at this point it's the top of the ticket," Bitzer said. "Without Barack Obama on the ballot, black voters may not have that necessary energy and enthusiasm" to equal their 2012 turnout.
