Trial begins on challenge to latest NC voter ID law

RALEIGH, NC (AP) — North Carolina’s latest law requiring photo identification to cast ballots is now on trial.

A panel of three state judges began hearing evidence on Monday in litigation filed to overturn a 2018 law that filled in details of how a voter ID constitutional amendment would be implemented.

A federal appeals courts already struck down in 2016 a voter ID mandate from 2013.

A lawyer representing voters who sued told the judges the law is designed to keep Black voters from the ballot box. But a lawyer for Republicans say that’s untrue, and that the law expanded the types of qualifying IDs.