North Carolina judge won’t prevent use of university digital IDs for voting
RALEIGH, NC — A North Carolina judge on Thursday denied a request by the Republican Party to prevent students and employees at the state’s flagship public university from showing digital IDs to comply with a new photo ID law.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory has denied a temporary restraining order sought by the Republican National Committee and the state GOP, according to online court records posted after a hearing. The ruling can be appealed.
The groups charged last week to stop the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from using the mobile UNC One Card as a qualifying ID, arguing that state law only allows the State Board of Elections to approve physical cards.
The mobile UNC One Card was approved on August 20 by the council’s Democratic majority, It is the first time that such identification has been posted via someone’s smartphone and that the board has approved it.
The Democratic National Committee and a student group from UNC-Chapel Hill joined the administration in court to oppose the restraining order, saying the administration correctly determined that the digital ID met the security and photo requirements set forth in state law for eligibility.
In legal briefs, they also said there was nothing in the law preventing the approval of a nonphysical card. The DNC’s lawyers wrote that preventing its use could confuse or even disenfranchise up to 40,000 people who work at or attend the school.
The mobile UNC One Card is now the standard ID card issued on campus, though students and tenured employees can still get physical cards for a small fee. The school announced this week that it would create free physical cards for students and employees who want to use one as a physical voter ID.
Voters can already choose to provide photo IDs from several broad categories, including their driver’s license, passport and military IDs. The council has also approved more than 130 types of traditional student and employee IDs that it says will be eligible for voting purposes in 2024, including UNC-Chapel Hill’s physical ID card. Only UNC-Chapel Hill’s mobile ID credentials on Apple phones were approved by the council.
Republicans said in the lawsuit that they worried that the adoption of mobile ID would allow “hundreds or thousands of ineligible voters” to vote. They argued that an electronic card would be easier to alter and harder for a poll worker to examine.
North Carolina is a state where presidential elections are often very exciting.
The ruling comes as millions of people planning to vote in the fall election will not be required to show identification under state law. Voter ID Act of 2018. Legal challenges meant that the mandate was only implemented the first time around when turnout was low. municipal elections in 2023.
While in-person voting opens on October 17, the first requested mail-in ballots are expected to be received soon. will be shipped from Friday to military and overseas voters, with ballots mailed to registered voters in the state beginning next week. Absentee voters must also include a copy of a qualifying ID with their completed ballot or fill out a form explaining why they do not have one.