After more than a year preparing to implement the North Carolina voter ID law that was approved by referendum vote in 2018, the NC State Board of Elections and local county boards were told to stop on Dec. 31.
U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs issued a ruling blocking the voter ID law on grounds that the law was racially discriminatory. The timing of the ruling means that the voter ID law will not be in place for the 2020 primary election in March.
“Voters in Macon County will not need to bring a photo ID with them to the polls for the primary,” Macon County Board of Elections Director Melanie Thibault said. “Now of course that could change again before the general election in November, but for right now a photo ID is not required, the voter just needs to give their name and address.”
The federal injunction stopping the voter ID law’s implementation is the latest in five years worth of stops and starts for board of elections staff members.
In 2013, the NC Legislature passed its first version of a voter ID law and preparations began to put the law in to practice. That law was eventually struck down by the state Supreme Court as racially discriminatory before it was used in an election.
In 2017 the legislature announced that voter ID would be put on the ballot as a referendum in 2018. The question regarding voter ID, which was to be implemented as an amendment to the state Constitution, passed with 55 percent support.
Since the 2018 election, the state board of elections has worked with county boards to get as much information out to citizens as possible regarding what forms of photo identification would be accepted at the polls. There have been public service announcements, mail notifications and in-person seminars to educate voters on how to vote beginning in 2020.
Now all of that work is essentially invalid.
“We have trained our poll workers for a year on the voter ID law and now we are basically telling them to go back and forget that training for the primary,” Thibault said. “What’s worse, it will likely change again before November and we likely will have to do another round of training on whatever the law is at that time.”
Thibault added that the Macon County Board of Elections was recently ordered new labels at the last minute following the injunction. The labels will cover the portion of the pre-printed absentee ballots that talks about voter ID requirements. Absentee voting for the 2020 primary election begins on Monday.
Primary election day is March 3.