Federal Judge Dismisses Legal Challenge to North Carolina’s 30-Day Residency Requirement for Voting
A law requiring North Carolinians to reside in the state for at least 30 days prior to an election in which they seek to vote will remain in place after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging that the rule violates the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and U.S. Constitution.
Judge James C. Dever —a George W. Bush appointee — concluded in an order issued this evening that “North Carolina’s 30-day durational residency requirement poses only a modest burden on voting rights” and does not unconstitutionally burden the right to vote. Dever additionally held that the rule does not violate the VRA.
In a complaint filed last October, the North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans argued that the state’s so-called “durational residency requirement” flouts a provision of the VRA that expressly prohibits states from imposing such rules.
The VRA permits states to impose a 30-day pre-election registration cutoff for presidential elections in order to ensure accurate voter lists and limit registration to bona fide residents — but as the suit averred, registration requirements are distinct from residency requirements.
The lawsuit further reasoned that North Carolina’s 30-day durational residency requirement is longer than the state’s registration deadline, which allows eligible voters to register up until the Saturday before Election Day using the state’s same-day registration process. Consequently, individuals who do not satisfy the 30-day residency requirement cannot take advantage of this same-day registration opportunity and are thus disenfranchised, according to the lawsuit.
In today’s order granting a motion to dismiss from GOP state legislators, Dever held that the portion of the VRA at issue in the case “does not prohibit or abolish durational residency requirement” in all elections. Rather — as the ruling states — the VRA solely prohibits residency requirements from interfering with citizens’ ability to vote in presidential elections, which North Carolinians who are new residents of the state may still do.
“A state violates Section 202 only if its durational residency requirement bars a citizen from voting for president,” the order reads. Dever also agreed with GOP state lawmakers who averred that the requirement is necessary to preventing voter “fraud.”
Back in March, a federal judge signed a consent decree that put an end to Washington State’s durational residency requirement, which mandated that prospective voters live in the state for at least 30 days in order to be eligible to register to vote.