WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Thursday afternoon North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein announced that he will fight the recent decision to block the state’s voter ID law.

However, with absentee voting set to start in two weeks, he said that voters will not need their IDs to vote in the March primaries.

In a new release, he stated: “In the federal litigation over North Carolina’s photo identification voting requirement, the North Carolina Department of Justice will appeal the district court’s recent decision to enjoin the law pending a trial.”

On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Bigg’s said the law was likely “motivated, at least in part, by racially discriminatory intent.”

She, backed by support from multiple chapters of the NAACP in the state, claimed that law suppresses the voting on minorities. Among their arguments, they claim that even though the state will give out free voter IDs, the limited times and locations directly impact minorities.

The preliminary injunction means North Carolina can’t require voter ID at the polls in upcoming elections without further notice from the court.

On Thursday, around 50 protesters marched outside her office at the Federal Building in Winston-Salem.

They shouted things like, “Feds, stay out,” and “You stole our vote.”

Mark Robinsons was among them. He voted for the Voter ID Law in 2018 and said he feels that vote is now being overlooked.

“You can go down to the polls, study the issues, vote the way you want, and then one person in the state in a black robe can throw your vote out the window,” he said.

The attorney general’s office was not able to give a timetable for when a decision will be made on the blocked voter ID law.