Photo identification voter requirement upheld

By Alan Wooten | The Center Square

file graphic | The Shelby Independent

(The Center Square) – Precedent setting cases at the U.S. Supreme Court and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals guided a federal judge to upholding North Carolina’s photo identification voter requirement Thursday.

North Carolina voters approved voter identification at the polls in 2018 through a constitutional amendment on the November ballot. In those midterms, 55.49% of nearly 3.7 million votes were in favor.

Justice Loretta Biggs, she of a 2020 ruling that continued to delay the implementation, said the central issue was whether plaintiffs showed violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“In making this determination, the Court must follow the law of the United States Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit,” Biggs wrote amid 134 pages of opinion.

“Finally,” said Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, the president pro tempore of the General Assembly’s upper chamber. “After seven years, we can put to rest any doubt that our state’s Voter I.D. law is constitutional. This is a monumental win for the citizens of North Carolina and election integrity efforts.”

Twenty-four states require photo ID to vote; 12 others accept forms of identification without a photograph.

Because of litigation, by progressive groups and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, the law hasn’t been enacted with staying power.

The case was heard with a bench trial in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

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Plaintiffs were the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and other groups. Defendants were Alan Hirsch, former chairman in his official capacity with the State Board of Elections, and Berger in his Senate capacity.

“Today’s decision is a strong vindication of the State Board of Elections’ implementation of North Carolina’s photo ID law," Hayes said. "The State Board has always been committed to administering voter ID according to the letter and spirit of the law. This ruling confirms that the law, as enacted and implemented, meets legal standards and includes important protections to ensure voters can participate in our elections.

"Election security and voter accessibility are not competing priorities – they are two sides of the same coin, and North Carolina’s voter ID law reflects that balance.”

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Alan Wooten has been a publisher, general manager and editor. His work has won national or state awards in every decade since the 1980s. He’s a proud graduate of Elon University and Farmville Central High in North Carolina.

The Shelby Independent.