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N.C. Republicans want to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the state's voter ID law.

Lawyers for North Carolina’s top Republican lawmakers want to intervene in a lawsuit against the state’s new voter ID law with their own lawyer.

State Senate Leader Phil Berger (Rockingham) and House Speaker Tim Moore (Cleveland) filed a motion in federal court today to represent the General Assembly in a NAACP lawsuit against rules introduced as part of the constitutional amendment approved by voters in November. Berger and Moore allege the NAACP deliberately bypassed suing lawmakers in order to keep them from defending the law.

Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, was named in the suit, as well as the State Board of Elections, which has since been disbanded. Another Democrat, Attorney General Josh Stein, is representing the state.

“Gov. Cooper and Attorney General Stein have deliberately undermined the General Assembly’s efforts to enact voter ID on numerous occasions,” Berger and Moore said in a joint statement. “It is very clear from both their words and actions that they cannot be trusted to defend voter ID, which is why the NAACP deliberately left legislators who enacted the voter ID law out of the lawsuit. A majority of North Carolinians voted in favor of voter ID last November, but Gov. Cooper made it readily apparent in his veto message that he does not respect the will of the people. That is why we have filed a motion to intervene in defending this law and ensure voters receive the election security they have asked for.”

Cooper vetoed bipartisan voter ID legislation in December, but the General Assembly overrode the bill, making it state law. The NAACP contends requiring state-issued identification to cast a ballot places an added burden on black voters.

Cooper said the bill, which was co-sponsored by former Sen. Joel Ford, a Charlotte Democrat and an African American, “was designed to suppress the rights of minority, poor and elderly voters.”

Republicans contend that as critics of voter ID, Cooper and Stein won’t vigorously defend the law. As attorney general, Cooper opposed against the General Assembly’s 2013 voter ID law, which was ultimately overturned in federal court as “unnecessary, expensive and burdensome.” As a senator in 2013, Stein criticized voter ID and after becoming attorney general in 2017, moved to dismiss the state’s petition in federal court, which Berger and Moore claim effectively derailed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court Case.

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