The Lewis F. Powell Jr. federal courthouse in Richmond is home to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. (Photo: Ned Oliver/ Virginia Mercury)
A section of the voter purge case Republicans wanted moved back to North Carolina state courts must remain in federal court, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
The decision was a victory for the state Board of Elections, which had appealed a federal judge’s order to send part of the voter purge case back to state court.
The Republican National Committee is seeking a court-ordered purge of 225,000 voters.
When it filed the lawsuit in late August, the RNC asked the court to require the state Board of Elections to come up with a plan to remove those voters from the rolls by Sept. 6, even though federal law prohibits systematic removal of voters within 90 days of an election.
Alternatively, the RNC wants to force those voters to submit provisional ballots. Provisional ballots require voters to go to their board of elections office after casting their ballots to verify their identities.
The state Board of Elections won a dismissal of part of the RNC lawsuit earlier this month. But the same federal judge sent part of the case back to state court.
The state Board argued that federal laws are at the heart of the RNC lawsuit, so the case should be decided in federal court. The Appeals Court held a hearing Monday.
The judges agreed with the state election board’s position.
“Plaintiffs’ Count Two claim may come cloaked in state constitutional garb, but it raises only federal statutory questions,” the court order says. The order sends the case back to federal district court.
The court did not weigh in on whether Republicans’ request would violate the federal law and its 90 day “quiet period.” But the fact that the federal law could prevent Republicans from winning the result they’re seeking “only serves to bolster the conclusion that Plaintiffs’ claims necessarily raise an issue of federal law.”