Federal Judge Weighs Testimony In Voter Purge Case

A federal judge in Winston-Salem is weighing testimony in a legal challenge involving a voting rights lawsuit after an emergency hearing Wednesday. The North Carolina chapter of the NAACP is suing the state over thousands of cancelled voter registrations.

Attorneys with the NAACP say elections officials broke federal law after three North Carolina counties purged voter registrations. They claim the challenges disproportionately affect minorities.

Federal law prohibits elections boards from clearing voter names from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election.

But lawyers for the state say the law doesn't apply to private individuals, who were the ones challenging the registrations. 

They say 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 individuals sent mail to home addresses. Returned mail gave county officials enough evidence to void the registrations. During the hearing, some county election officials say they also made additional efforts to contact voters for address verifications.

Federal judge Loretta Biggs, who is presiding over the case, questioned how the challenge process was carried out by election officials.

Biggs said she was "horrified" by the number of removals in Cumberland County, which accounted for the majority of the statewide total. She said she would weigh all of the testimony, but ended by saying any burden that comes out of this case should be placed on the state and not the voter.

It's unclear when a ruling will be issued, but Biggs noted the importance of a timely one as the Nov. 8th election nears.

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