In a significant legal victory, Democrats have successfully argued against the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, ensuring that about 98,000 North Carolina voters will not be barred from voting. This case stems from the Trump administration’s shift away from expanding voting rights, as the Justice Department had earlier demanded North Carolina to withhold ballots from voters who had not submitted a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. The North Carolina Court of Appeals initially ordered the state to obtain this information before allowing these individuals to vote. However, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and voting rights groups intervened, challenging this requirement as a violation of the National Voter Registration Act and for purportedly partisan motives.
Under proposed consent between the Justice Department and North Carolina, voters not meeting the identification criteria will still be allowed to vote provisionally, with the chance to provide the missing information at the polling site. The agreement awaits the approval of Judge Richard E. Myers II of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Traditionally, the Voting Rights Act and principles of expanded ballot access have been upheld by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. However, under the leadership of Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the division’s focus has shifted towards combatting voter fraud and prosecuting noncitizen voting – occurrences that are very rare. Despite this, the DNC’s litigation director, Dan Freeman, hailed the decision as a “huge victory for the DNC and our entire democracy,” emphasizing that Democrats will continue to fight for the rights of all North Carolina voters.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/03/trump-north-carolina-elections-lawsuit
