(Raleigh News Observer) Six weeks before Election Day, states across the country are still wrestling over new voting laws.
• In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court has thrown a tough new voter ID law back to a lower court.
• In Wisconsin, two state courts have blocked a similar law.
• And Monday, a panel of federal judges will hear closing arguments on South Carolina’s new ID law that requires voters to have photo identification at the polls.
They’re among 17 states which, citing voting integrity, have passed ID laws or other measures that could impact the election. Critics say they could suppress turnout by discouraging some voters – especially seniors and minorities – from voting.
But it’s the absence of such a law in North Carolina that has become an issue in the state’s gubernatorial race, offering a sharp contrast between Democrat Walter Dalton and Republican Pat McCrory.
Last year, North Carolina’s Republican-controlled General Assembly passed a bill that would have required voters to show a photo ID at the polls. Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, vetoed it.
If elected, McCrory said he would sign a similar bill.
“You need to protect the integrity of the voting system,” McCrory said. “I don’t want Chicago politics to come to North Carolina.”
Dalton has vowed to veto an ID bill.
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