Yadkin Valley News

Republican lawmakers are leading an effort to get the North Carolina Superior Court to remove an injunction on the state's photo voter ID law after Gov. Roy Cooper signed legislation that redefines what is visual records must be submitted at election sites.  

In addition to providing funding for local elections boards and making necessary adjustments for voting in the time of COVID-19, the elections act adds public assistance IDs to the list of valid photo IDs accepted at the polls under North Carolina's constitutional requirement. 

“North Carolina has one of the most lenient photo voter ID  laws in the country because voters who do not have a qualifying ID can still cast a ballot in our state or present an expired ID for up to a  year,” House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) said in a statement on his website.

In the court filing, attorneys for state lawmakers argue that the public assistance ID provision overrides a Court of Appeals injunction on voter ID. 

"North Carolina has no-excuse absentee ballot voting for anyone to vote by mail," Moore said on in the statement on his website. "We have 17 days of early voting. It is past time for activist courts to stop blocking another commonsense elections policy that is required by North Carolina’s constitution and a strong majority of other states."

North Carolina's state constitution requires voters to present photo identification. North Carolina's voter ID law is non-strict. Any qualified voter can provide a reasonable explanation for not having a qualifying photo ID and still cast a ballot in person. The forms of qualifying photo ID accepted are varied and the law even provides for free government-issued IDs.