Suit: NC Election Board's 'Digital' Voter ID Rule Violates State Law

Guidance issued by North Carolina’s Democrat-run election board permitting a state university’s students and employees to use “digital” ID to vote violates state law, a legal challenge filed Thursday alleges.

Brought by the Republican National Committee and North Carolina GOP, the lawsuit contends that a rule approved by the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) “allowing precinct workers to rely upon the University of North Carolina [UNC] Chapel Hill’s digital student and employee identification” to present as a valid form of photo ID when voting in elections. Individual board members and NCSBE Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell are listed as defendants in the case.

According to plaintiffs, the board “voted to change their established position and accept electronic student and employee identification documents from UNC as saved on a computer system and produced to a precinct official on a computer device.” The guidance was approved by the NCSBE’s Democrat majority in a 3-2 vote during the board’s Aug. 20 online meeting.

In North Carolina, eligible electors are required by law to produce an acceptable form of photo ID when voting in person, such as a state driver’s license, passport, or an identification card issued by a “state or local government entity.” Other examples listed in the statute are a North Carolina voter photo ID card, military ID, and student identification cards “issued by a constituent institution of The University of North Carolina, a community college … or eligible private postsecondary institution … provided that card is issued in accordance” with state law.

“Every single item [named in the statute] are physical, tangible cards, drivers licenses, or passports” and “can be held in a person’s hand and examined for what it is physically,” plaintiffs contend.

The RNC and North Carolina GOP further argued that existing law “does not allow the NCSBE to expand the circumstances of what is an acceptable student identification card, beyond a tangible, physical item, to something only found on a computer system.” They also cited a Feb. 23 memo issued by the board, which reportedly reads, “An image of a photo ID, either as a photocopy or a photo on a mobile device, is not one of the permitted forms of photo ID when voting in person.”

When pressed for comment on the lawsuit’s allegations, NCSBE Public Information Director Patrick Gannon referred The Federalist to a recording of the board’s Aug. 20 meeting.

According to the Associated Press, NCSBE Chair Alan Hirsch, a Democrat, justified his support for allowing UNC students and employees using a digital ID to vote by citing “trends in technology” and noting how “airline passengers now show boarding passes from their smartphones.”

“There’s certainly enough flexibility within the statute for us to approve a digital card as a card. I think that’s the way of the world,” Hirsch reportedly said. “I think everyone of a certain younger generation than we are lives by that.”

Republican member Stacy “Four” Eggers IV disagreed, arguing that state law is clear in requiring voters to present a physical photo ID to vote in person and that arbitrarily changing guidance pertaining to relevant statutes is “confusing and inconsistent.”

“This is a different process we’re doing here than simply giving my friend my football tickets when I download them from the website,” Eggers said.

The Democrat board members “are welcome to their opinions, and even to take action to change these laws, as permitted by law. But they are not allowed to defy the law as it currently exists and substitute their opinions about what the law should be,” plaintiffs’ lawsuit reads. “If those three board members want to vote in a legislative body to change the laws, they should run for office, get elected, and serve in the General Assembly. However, until the General Assembly passes a law that is enacted and becomes effective, the NCSBE must limit itself to applying the existing law, as it is unambiguously written.”

The RNC and North Carolina GOP requested Wake County Superior Court to issue a declaratory judgement specifying the “only type of voter photo identification that qualifies under North Carolina law is a voter photo identification that satisfies all” requirements specified by state law and that eligible electors “must produce acceptable voter photo identification which cannot, under the law, be a UNC student or employee electronic photo identification.”

They also asked the court to issue an expedited writ of mandamus and preliminary and permanent injunction ordering the board to comply with the law as written, revoke its guidance allowing local election officials to “accept a UNC student or employee electronic photo identification,” and immediately notify these officials of the law’s original specifications.

For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood