NC elections board implementing voter ID rules, asks colleges to submit student IDs

With the state Supreme Court green lighting North Carolina’s voter identification requirements this spring, the North Carolina State Board of Elections is working through implementation details ahead of this year’s municipal elections.

The board has asked colleges, state agencies and local governments — whose student and employee photo IDs can be used at polling places if the board approves them first — to submit copies of those IDs this month.

The board also met today on a number of election issues, including protocols for checking IDs and new paperwork explaining the state's photo ID requirement.

“Tons of forms [have to be updated],” said Pat Gannon, a spokesman for the state elections board. “Envelopes, other documents need to be updated.”

Among other things, the board plans to create a new absentee ballot envelope with a place for people to include a copy of their photo IDs when they vote by mail.

The board, made up of three Democrats and two Republicans, voted unanimously to move forward vote with proposed ID rules. That kick starts a review process that includes a public hearing planned for June 19. Comments can also be submitted via an online portal, by emailing rulemaking.sboe@ncsbe.gov or by writing to: Rulemaking Coordinator, PO Box 27255, Raleigh, NC 27611-7255.

The proposed rules advise poll workers on a number of issues, including how to determine whether a voter bears a “reasonable resemblance” to their photo ID, as required by the state's voter ID law.

The goal, board members and staff said, is for the rules to be well understood and consistently applied across North Carolina's 100 counties.

"As uncomplicated for the voter as possible," Board Member Siobhan O’Duffy Millen said. "That’s my north star.”

The deadline for North Carolina universities, colleges, state agencies and local governments to submit their ID’s for approval before the 2023 municipal elections is June 28.

Approvals granted this year will also be good during next year’s elections, but there will also be another window for colleges and government entities to seek approval before the 2024 elections.

North Carolina voters added a photo ID requirement to the state constitution in 2018, but the issue had been tied up by a series of lawsuits, and photo ID hasn't been required in recent elections.

The law now in place generally requires photo ID to vote, but there's an exception allowing people to vote without one if they fill out a form attesting to a reasonable impediment that kept them from having ID at the polls.

Photo IDs are available free from the state.