The case against a set of voting laws passed by the General Assembly in 2013 begins Monday in federal court.

The U.S. Department of Justice and civil rights groups, including the North Carolina NAACP, took issue with a series of voting laws the General Assembly passed in 2013. The Voter Information Verification Act, or House Bill 589, ended same-day voter registration and out-of-precinct voting. It also reduced the number of early voting days and requires voters to present a photo ID beginning in 2016.

Jasmyn Richardson is an attorney for the Advancement Project, an organization representing the NAACP in the case.

“We have a few big claims, to simplify them,” Richardson says. “The biggest one is under The Voting Rights Act.”

The Voting Rights Act is the landmark federal legislation of 1965 that outlawed racial discrimination in voting. Richardson says the plaintiffs will argue House Bill 589 conflicts with Section 2 of that Act.

“And under that section, we’re basically arguing that House Bill 589 as it is enacted places an unfair burden on African Americans and Latinos.”

Those racial minorities, Richardson says, use the voting provisions eliminated by House Bill 589 at higher rates than whites.

“Our argument essentially is that by taking that away, you’re taking away what a group of Americans, particularly African Americans and Latino Americans, had been accustomed to using,” Richardson explains.

Richardson says the plaintiffs will make several constitutional claims as well, arguing the bill applies differently to different people and that it places a burden on the general right to vote.

The state argues the laws are not discriminatory, but meant to increase confidence in the integrity of North Carolina elections.

Judge Thomas Schroeder will preside in the case. He serves on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina in Winston-Salem. The trial is expected to last two weeks.

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