North Carolina ID opponents, including the Department of Justice, want a trial in 2014 over voter ID and other election changes that would potentially disrupt state preparation for the 2014 federal congressional races.  On the other side, North Carolina wants to push any litigation over the election laws to 2015, a off election year that does not involve any significant federal elections.

Parties who are a gulf apart over what laws should be in place to ensure fair and open elections are just as widely divided about how quickly a lawsuit challenging new voter laws should be heard in federal court.

On Thursday, attorneys for the NAACP, League of Women Voters, the ACLU of North Carolina and other voter rights advocates will gather in a federal courtroom in Winston-Salem to talk about one early point of contention – whether the trial will happen before or after the 2014 elections.

Attorneys representing Gov. Pat McCrory, the N.C. Board of Elections and other state officials have laid out a proposed schedule in a report to the federal court, suggesting that a two- to three-week trial could be held no sooner than the summer of 2015.