The North Carolina General Assembly’s agenda for the current session shows the controversial voter identification legislation requiring voters to show photo identification at the poll is still making waves in the legislature.
Supporters of voter ID legislation hope to prevent fraudulent voting at the polls and instill confidence in our democratic system.
Interest groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Democracy N.C. and other national organizations oppose laws that would require voters to show photo identification.
The NAACP compares the voter ID laws to the times of civil rights movements in the 1960s. Reverend William Barber, president of the NAACP, has stated that requiring a voter to show ID is comparable to a poll tax in early 20th century because of the cost to obtain licenses.
Hans von Spakovsky, the senior legal fellow of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, was also invited to speak at a House Committee on Elections hearing.
The House Committee on Elections held a panel hearing with speakers from around the region to explain their support or opposition March 14.
“This is not Jim Crow. This is not a police dog. This is not a fire hose,” von Spakovsky said while holding his driver’s license in the air.
Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy N.C., opposes the bill and called voter ID legislation “a fantasy tool to stop fraud.” He believes citizens will go on to fraudulently produce photo IDs.
Hall ended his argument at the panel discussion by encouraging a shift of focus to the third of registered voters not voting as well as “tools of voter engagement rather than tool of voter suppression.”
Interest groups in opposition have spoken out on the effect a proposed bill could have on elderly, minorities and younger adults or college students.
Even with interest group opposition, polls show that a majority of registered voters in North Carolina are in support of this legislation.
Elon University conducted a recent poll that uncovered a majority 72 percent would like some type of voter ID restrictions.
Within the minority of voters opposing voter ID legislation, about 3 percent did not have a government issued photo ID. The majority of the 3 percent without ID were either between the ages of 18-21 or over the age of 65.
“We must update ballot access and ballot protection as we have updated our ability to register to vote and to vote,” Francis DeLuca, president of the Civitas Institute in Raleigh, said.
Polls could deny voting depending on where voters obtained their ID, even if it is government-issued. This makes them inadequate for voting wherever they are currently living in North Carolina.
Absentee ballots would be an option for students but those in opposition believe this would decrease voter turnout and would become especially difficult for students studying out-of-state.
Statistics on voter turnout revealed a rise in turnout for the 18-24 age bracket. In the days of early voting this past election, the 18-24 age ranges turnout had escalated almost 40 percent from the 2008 election.
Both North Carolina residents and the involved interest groups feel it is likely legislation will pass due to the Republican majority in the General Assembly and the Republican support on voter ID legislation.
This is not the first attempt at voter ID legislation from the General Assembly. In the previous session, Governor Bev Perdue, a Democrat, vetoed a bill requiring photo identification and lawmakers were unable to override the veto.
Thirty states across the country have already enacted some form of voter identification laws and 11 states have enacted laws with photo identification.
If the legislation is proposed and passes, it is likely that the voter ID laws could be changed by mid-April.
