LUMBERTON — Local election officials are welcoming the start of North Carolina’s voter ID requirement in time for the March 15 primary.
The ID requirement, part of an election overhaul passed by the North Carolina legislature in 2013, survived an injunction that would have prevented it from taking effect for the primary. The controversial measure’s next hurdle comes Monday, when a trial is scheduled to begin to determine whether the ID requirement is legal.
Local elections officials say the ID requirement will help cut down on improperly cast ballots that have prevented them from being able to close the books on November races for City Council in Lumberton and mayor in Pembroke.
“Voter ID is tremendously important to update and provide accurate voter information now and into the future … . Having correct names and addresses will avoid some of the irregularities that may have happened here in Robeson County in the past,” said Steve Stone, a Republican and chairman of Robeson County’s three-member Board of Elections.
The State Board of Elections in 2013 estimated that 318,643 out of 6.4 million registered voters in the state — about 5 percent — didn’t have a North Carolina driver’s license or a voter ID from the Department of Motor Vehicles. There are 72,684 registered voters in Robeson County and it is estimated that about 6,000 of them don’t have a driver’s license or voter ID.
Stone is a strong supporter of voter ID, having said repeatedly at Board of Elections meetings and other settings that voter ID will serve as a “tool” to guarantee fair and accurate elections.
“We want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to vote, but we also want to make sure that everyone gets to vote where they should and for what they are entitled to,” Stone said.
Phillip Stephens, chairman of the Robeson County Republican Party, says “no single measure” will wholly eliminate voter fraud locally, but that requiring a photo ID to vote will help.
“Robeson County is becoming the poster child for voter ID,” he said.
The North Carolina NAACP, one of the main critics of the law, had sought an injunction to prevent the requirement from taking effect for the March primary, but on Jan. 15, a federal judge rejected that request. The NAACP and others critical of the requirement say it is unconstitutional and would suppress minority and poor voters.
Robeson County is always ranked near the top of the poorest counties in North Carolina, and it has a minority population of about 70 percent.
“While the legislature attempted to mask their discriminatory intentions behind inadequate modifications to the law, the impact of the law remains the same: voters of color will lose their right to vote at disproportionate rates,” North Carolina NAACP President Rev. William Barber said in a statement after the injunction was denied.
The NAACP is encouraging voters without an ID to head to the polls on March 15 anyway. The State Board of Elections in its voter ID information says voters will be asked to show an ID but that “no voter will be turned away from the polls because he or she lacks acceptable photo ID.”
Under the law, acceptable forms of ID include a driver’s license, passport, veteran’s ID card, military IDs and some tribal enrollment cards. On Tuesday, the state Board of Elections voted to include enrollment IDs for Lumbee tribal members, along with the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, the Coharie Tribe and the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe, as acceptable forms of ID for voting purposes.
Lumbee Tribal Chairman Harvey Godwin Jr. said the vote came after months of working with the State Board of Elections to ensure that the process to secure a tribal enrollment card was in line with the state’s standards for issuing a driver’s license.
Would-be voters without an ID have options if they want to cast a ballot in March.
Last year, Gov. Pat McCrory signed a law allowing voters with a “reasonable impediment” to avoid the ID requirement and cast a provisional ballot that would be counted once the voter’s credentials are verified.
Voters who don’t have a photo ID because of a reasonable impediment — such as a lack of proper documents, transportation problems, or illness — must sign a document attesting to their impediment and provide their date of birth, and the last four digits of their Social Security number, present a current voter registration card or present a copy of document showing their name and address, for example a utility bill, bank statement or paycheck.
A photo ID is also not required to mail in an absentee ballot.
Some voters may qualify for a free photo ID from the Department of Motor Vehicles for voting purposes. To qualify, a person must be registered to vote; provide two documents that prove their age and identity, such as a birth certificate or tax form; provide a valid Social Security number; and provide one document to prove their North Carolina residency.
After being repealed for the 2014 election, same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting are back in effect, although a judge who heard challenges to those laws last summer could rule at any time and eliminate those options again, according to the Associated Press.
The deadline to register to vote in the March 15 primary is Feb. 19. One-stop voting ahead of the primary takes place March 3 through March 12.
Visit voterid.nc.gov for more information about voter ID’s.
