A federal judge refused to block North Carolina's photo identification law for elections starting with the March 15 primary.

RALEIGH – A federal judge refused Friday to block North Carolina's photo identification requirement to vote in person from taking effect with the March 15 primary elections.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroder's ruling denying the preliminary injunction motion of the state NAACP and allied voters likely ensures that voter ID will be implemented for the first time on schedule. A trial on whether the ID law is legal will be held Jan. 25 and last several days.

The Republican-led General Assembly passed an elections overhaul law in 2013 containing the mandate but deferred its start until the first election in 2016 to give people time to learn about the requirement and to obtain one of several forms of qualifying ID.

The law has been in the courts ever since, including three federal lawsuits that have been consolidated into one case. Last June, the legislature altered the photo ID mandate to allow more people who had trouble obtaining an ID card to successfully vote by filling out paperwork and presenting alternate identifying information. GOP Gov. Pat McCrory signed both laws.

Schroeder wrote Friday that NAACP lawyers have failed to show their clients surely will win at trial on allegations the photo ID requirement is unconstitutionally burdensome on minority groups and intentionally discriminatory. These allegations, he said, are weighed against a broad effort by elections officials to tell voters about the amended ID requirement through letters, radio and television ads, and election worker training.

The NAACP plaintiffs, Schroeder wrote, have failed to clearly demonstrate how the state's education efforts “have failed to prepare North Carolina voters for the photo ID law. Quite the opposite. Changing course in midstream will likely serve to confuse voters as to the state of the law.''

Schroeder also declined another request from the state NAACP to delay a Jan. 25 trial in Winston-Salem on the legality of the mandate until after the primary. “The claims need to be resolved,'' Schroeder wrote in a separate ruling Thursday.

Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, and Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, who helped shepherd the voter ID legislation, said in a release that Schroeder's ruling against the injunction “validates the state's comprehensive two-year effort to educate all North Carolinians about the new law.'' They called the preliminary injunction request a “desperate, partisan'' attempt to block the requirement before early voting begins March 3.

NAACP state president the Rev. William Barber and group attorneys pointed out they would still get a chance to present their full arguments and evidence to have the law overturned at the trial's close.

“While the legislature attempted to mask their discriminatory intentions behind inadequate modifications to the law, the impact of the law remains the same: voters of color will lose their right to vote at disproportionate rates,'' Barber said in a news release.

The U.S. Justice Department and the League of Women Voters of North Carolina also sued over the 2013 law but didn't seek the preliminary injunction or trial delay. They will participate in the upcoming trial.

Schroeder presided over a three-week trial last summer involving the same plaintiffs challenging other portions of the 2013 law that have already taken effect, including the reduction in the number of early voting days and the elimination of same-day registration during the early voting period. Schroeder has yet to issue a ruling from that trial.

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