Federal lawsuits over N Carolina photo ID mandate stay alive

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) – A federal judge has refused to dismiss portions of federal lawsuits challenging North Carolina’s upcoming voter identification requirement, setting up a likely trial early next year.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder denied the motion from attorneys for the state during a court hearing Friday in Winston-Salem. The state wrote that the voter ID claims filed in 2013 by civil rights groups, voters and the federal government are moot because the legislature eased the photo identification requirement that begins in 2016.

The plaintiffs argued the modified voter ID mandate still threatens to burden black and Hispanic voters, who are less likely to have qualifying IDs.

Photo ID is supposed to begin with the March 15 primary.

Schroeder hasn’t ruled yet from another trial about election law changes held in July.

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)