On the heels of hundreds of citizen complaints at voter ID hearings across the state, and after years of mounting public and legal pressure, Democracy North Carolina is pleased that the NC General Assembly has decided to modify the needless voter ID hurdle that voters will face starting in 2016.
Even if just one percent of registered voters do not have an acceptable government photo ID, that would mean over 60,000 North Carolinians would be cheated out of having their voices heard in an election.
The new provisions in HB-836 (beginning on page 6) add a measure of protection for legitimate voters by creating a back-up way to verify the person at the poll is the voter. A voter either shows one of a longer list of documents (including a registration card) or gives the voter’s birth date and last 4 digits of the SSN; the voter must also check a box indicating a “reasonable impediment” for not having one of the acceptable IDs on the short list, such as lack of birth certificate or transportation problems. The new “reasonable impediment” provision still requires the extra time and uncertainty of filling out a provisional ballot, but now there’s a better chance that the vote will actually be counted.
For a one-page description of the changes in HB-836, click here.
In the context of a needless and burdensome law, this legislation is a victory for citizens and citizen participation. During his comments about HB-836, Rep. David Lewis acknowledged the importance of citizen voices at the recent voter ID rule-making hearings across the state. Democracy North Carolina played the leading role in organizing hundreds of citizens to attend and speak out at these hearings. We have also documented the stories of dozens of voters who face serious problems getting a DMV-issued ID, and we will continue to work hard to make sure no one is blocked from voting.
Two other points about the changes are vitally important. First, most states with ID provisions include versions of the back-up protections adopted in HB-836. The provisions in that bill mirror the flexibility in South Carolina’s ID policy adopted a few years ago, which was pre-cleared under the Voting Rights Act. Not including such protections and flexibility threatened to sink NC’s entire ID requirement in a fair court of law. Affidavits of voters facing hardships and mounting evidence of DMV’s inability to uniformly issue “free” IDs forced Republican leaders to admit the law wouldn’t work and it needed major revisions to avoid defeat in court.
Second, other provisions remain in the anti-voter Monster Law that are already denying honest citizens their right to vote. Earlier this week, Democracy NC released a report that identified 2,344 voters whose ballots were rejected in 2014 because of changes made by that law; their ballots would have counted in 2012. They are the visible tip of the iceberg of tens of thousands of voters harmed by the many parts of the Monster Law.
We hope that these other measures, along with the convoluted ID requirement, will soon be struck down in court – particularly the elimination of same-day registration, pre-registration for teens, and out-of-precinct provisional ballots.
Bob Hall, Executive Director
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