Right decision: There simply wasn't enough time to change voting procedures

It is hard to imagine that someone who was appointed to a Court of Appeals judge position would not immediately understand the folly of messing with voting laws less than a month before an election.

And it is even scarier to think that the state almost spent bundles of money to redo voter information to undo a decision made by an appeals court in the case challenging voting rules in North Carolina.

But the judges in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decided at the last minute to require the state of North Carolina to allow same-day voter registration and out of precinct voting -- after all the information had been printed for this fall's election.

It is all because of a challenge filed against the changes made to the state's voting laws, which has not yet been heard fully.

But at the last minute, the U.S. Supreme Court has seen fit to undo the damage and to allow the new rules to take effect while the challenge is in the courts.

And that was the wise thing to do.

There will be much discussion of the voter laws and their effect on minority and youth voters, but the law is in place now and it should be observed now -- even if some have a political interest in the decision one way or the other.

The place for the arguments and the decision is absolutely in the courts in 2015.

Published in Editorials on October 9, 2014 11:26 AM