Judge refuses to block voter ID law for Native Americans in North Dakota

Hovland uses the excuse "to preserve the status quo when elections are fast approaching", but this is a NEW law. This is an example of why the republicans blocked more than 100 of Obama's appointments to these LIFETIME court positions, and are quickly approving Trump's appointments.

This evidently means politicians can keep homeless people from voting, too.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/414384-judge-refuses-to-block-voter-id-law-for-native-americans-in-north-dakota

By Lydia Wheeler - 11/01/18

A federal district court judge on Thursday refused to temporarily exempt Native Americans in North Dakota from a state law requiring residents to show a valid ID that lists a current residential street address when voting.

Chief Judge Daniel Hovland, of the U.S. District Court for North Dakota, cited Tuesday’s midterm election in his decision to reject the emergency request for temporary relief from the requirement to provide proof of a residential address.

Hovland, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, stated, "The federal courts are unanimous in their judgment that it is highly important to preserve the status quo when elections are fast approaching."

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In April, the district court blocked the voter ID law from being enforced, but that order was stayed by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 24.

In early October, the Supreme Court denied a request from the plaintiffs to toss out the 8th Circuit’s ruling.

Hovland said Thursday that the allegations in the Native Americans' complaint do give the court great cause for concern.

“However,” he said, “a further injunction on the eve of this election will create as much confusion as it will alleviate, and is foreclosed by precedent which is hesitant to permit ‘eleventh-hour changes to election laws.'”

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Eighth_Circuit

Republican Presidents have appointed a greater percentage of judges to the Eighth Circuit (ten of eleven active judges, or 91%) than any other Court of Appeals in the United States.[

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http://fortune.com/2018/10/10/supreme-court-north-dakota-voter-id-laws/

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The law requires that North Dakota residents provide identification that includes a residential street address in order to vote. But the state is home to thousands of Native Americans and others who do not have standard addresses, which the challengers argued would effectively disenfranchise them.

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http://www.startribune.com/thousands-of-native-voters-in-north-dakota-getting-free-ids/499165381/

Thousands of American Indian voters in N.D. getting free IDs
By BLAKE NICHOLSON Associated Press
October 31, 2018

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Changes to North Dakota's voter ID laws came just months after Heitkamp's win by fewer than 3,000 votes with the help of Native Americans in 2012, though Republicans say that had nothing to do with updates aimed at guarding against voter fraud. American Indians make up about 5 percent of North Dakota's population.

The Turtle Mountain Chippewa, Standing Rock Sioux, Spirit Lake Sioux and Three Affiliated Tribes all have launched programs to provide free IDs with street address to tribal members in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.

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