LOD: Local Distractions

The effort to impose a hard-line ID requirement on voters has moved to the county level in North Carolina. In the last few weeks, Republican majorities on four County Commissions have adopted resolutions asking the General Assembly for authority to make voters show a government photo ID in their local elections. All 22 white Republican Commissioners in these four counties – Gaston, Davidson, Craven, and Rowan – voted for the resolutions, while the 3 Democrats opposed them. The racial and partisan divisions in the photo ID debate are hard to miss: A black voter in these counties is twice as likely as a white voter to not have a current NC photo ID, according to an analysis by the State Board of Elections. Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the state photo ID bill (H-351) and another override attempt will likely happen, although probably not in the brief session scheduled after Thanksgiving. But legislators are expected to introduce other bills affecting elections, as well as “local bills” to authorize local governments to impose the ID barrier. Former NC Chief Justice Burley Mitchell says that even if legislators call it a “local bill,” changing voting requirements is a state action, protected by the state constitution, so a “local bill” would trigger a possible veto and lawsuit. There are many reasons to not waste tax money on producing or policing photo IDs or creating barriers that harm certain voters much more than others. A commissioner in Columbus County, where the resolution was tabled, got it right: “I would think that our legislators would have a more pressing matter,” he said. “I think they can be looking at job bills as opposed to voter ID bills.”