New York Times: In North Carolina, Voting Controversies Are Common. Here’s the Recent History.

In the past decade, North Carolina has been a central battleground for the partisan fight over voting restrictions.

Since their takeover of the state’s General Assembly in 2010, Republicans have devised district maps and pushed through voter identification laws that have prompted a series of high-profile court cases. In a state that retained literacy tests until the 1970s, the potential for disenfranchisement of black voters is at the core of the continuing debate. …

“As a state, we were a leader in voting rights, arguably, for the decade before the 2010 shift in power,” said Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause in North Carolina, a nonpartisan government watchdog group.