A voter ID bill was introduced in the North Carolina Senate yesterday that would secure elections, while allowing a broad range of photo IDs and making it simple, easy, and free to obtain a photo ID. This bill is the implementing legislation for the voter ID constitutional amendment that was passed with wide support from North Carolina voters on Election Day.
Senate Bill 824, would create a new “voter photo ID,” which would be a voter registration card with the voter’s photo on it that can be obtained for free at their local county board of elections.
The bill is largely modeled on the South Carolina voter ID law which was upheld by a panel of federal judges, but would allow even more forms of ID than the South Carolina law including tribal IDs, student IDs, and certain expired IDs.
After a Monday meeting of the Joint Legislative Elections Oversight Committee where legislators listened to feedback on the initial draft of the legislation, student IDs from community colleges and private universities as well as state or local government employee IDs were added to the bill as acceptable forms of voter ID.