photo credit: Steve Heap // Shutterstock
Earlier this month during midterm elections, NC voters approved the amendment for needing a voter ID in the upcoming elections. Making NC one in a small group of states that require a voter ID. This would make it the third time in recent years that the Voter ID legislation has been advanced, but in the past, the advance was either veto’d or struck down by the courts. Most recently in 2013, federal judges stopped the approval saying that it had discriminatory intent towards black voters.
Now here we are again in 2018 facing the same discriminatory law, but what will be the outcome this time? Many ask how it is discriminating towards one group of people. Well, a large number of blacks voters in this country do not have identification or the right forms needed to obtain a proper identification card or drivers license. Whether it be a social security card or birth certificate. And with this being known and researched by the state, government and others, they try to find ways to stop our voices from being heard during elections. The government tries to say that voter fraud is the issue and why IDs are needed, but this is false. It was found that between 2000 and 2014, there were only 31 cases of voter ID fraud out of 1 billion votes.
With this new law, another concern is what type of IDs will be permitted to vote. We now can say that in the early stages of approval, the permitted IDs will include student IDs from public and private colleges and universities and community colleges, as well as employee ID cards for state and local governments. Those IDs must meet certain security thresholds.
There would also be a new free, photo voter identification card that county election boards produce. These are all in addition to qualifying driver’s licenses, passports and military and tribal ID cards. People who can’t obtain an ID card can sign a form at the voting place explaining why they can’t and still cast ballots.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has been against this Voter ID law for a longtime, but cannot currently stop any bill through the end of the year while the GOP still holds veto-proof majorities. As of now, he simply wants to see the bill.
“It is a solution in search of a problem, and there is no problem with this. I think it’s wrong for our state,” Cooper told reporters.
Written by Clarke Jones
Source: WNCT