US District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder ruled as we expected: he sees no problem with the sweeping rewrite of North Carolina’s election law by Republican legislators and Gov. Pat McCrory.

In one section that reflects a myopic view of evidence, he concludes, “There is significant, shameful past discrimination. In North Carolina’s recent history, however, certainly for the last quarter century, there is little official discrimination to consider.”

Hopefully, other judges will take off the rose-colored glasses and look at the facts and law with more care.

Judge Schroeder acknowledges that African Americans in North Carolina disproportionately lack a photo ID and benefit from key provisions that help voters, such as same-day registration; but he concludes that the plaintiffs “failed to show that such disparities will have materially adverse effects on the ability of minority voters to cast a ballot.”

He says the ID requirement is no problem because the state allows voters to use a provisional ballot and complete an affidavit about why they don’t have an acceptable IDs. With his rosy vision and without reviewing evidence from the March primary, he concludes, “In sum, plaintiffs have failed to show that any North Carolinian who wishes to vote faces anything other than the ‘usual burdens of voting.’”

Schroeder’s decision ignores the reality that over 1,000 voters who lacked an acceptable ID took the trouble to fill out forms at polling sites in the March primary but were silenced; their ballots were rejected, often for trivial and inconsistent reasons, depending on where they voted and the wording they used to explain their lack of ID. On the other hand, a new Democracy North Carolina analysis of the March primary reveals that more than 29,000 voters were saved and their ballots counted because an injunction preserved two backup provisions that Schroeder now says can be eliminated: same-day registration during early voting and out-of-precinct voting on Election Day.

Real voters are already being harmed by the Monster Law that Judge Schroeder upholds.

And even more will suffer when the full force of his ruling becomes effective. The ruling undermines the integrity of the voting process in North Carolina and reflects a deep lack of interest in preserving elections that are fair, accessible and secure.

Bob Hall

Contributing columnist

Bob Hall is executive director of Democracy North Carolina