Republicans roll out voter ID bill

General Assembly Republicans rolled out their voter ID bill Tuesday.

The legislature plans to come back into session Nov. 27 to formalize these rules, a follow-up to a new constitutional amendment voters approved at the polls two weeks ago.

All of those types of ID must be valid and unexpired under the legislation. The bill also allows the following forms of ID regardless of whether they carry expiration or issuance dates:

The planned committee meeting includes presentations from private colleges and the state's community colleges about the possibility of accepting those IDs as well. The committee will also talk about accepting state and local government ID cards, according to Bill D'Elia, spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger.

In releasing the proposal Wednesday, D'Elia described the bill as "a starting point, not a finished product," with changes likely.

Allison Riggs, an attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, called the proposed bill "a deeply problematic piece of legislation." Her organization has sued the legislature repeatedly over voter ID and other election law changes.

By meeting this year, instead of waiting for the new General Assembly that was elected Nov. 6 to be seated, Republicans will maintain more control over these rules. They have super majorities in both the House and Senate in this General Assembly, rendering Gov. Roy Cooper's veto moot if Republicans in both chambers stick together.

Democrats broke those veto-proof majorities in the recent election, but those results don't take effect until the new legislature is seated.

Under the bill, county boards of election must issue free ID cards to registered voters who request them. These IDs will expire after 8 years. The state would provide counties with the equipment needed to print these cards.

The State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement would have to adopt rules for these cards by April 15, 2019, but at a minimum registered voters would have to provide county officials with their date of birth and the last four digits of their social security number. That data would be checked against registration records.

Those without valid ID may still cast provisional ballots under these proposed rules, but the votes will only count if the voter brings a valid photo ID to the county board of elections before the end of the canvass. The bill also allows voters to declare a "reasonable impediment" to having photo ID, allowing them to cast a provisional ballot after they fill out an affidavit about the impediment.

The bill also includes an exception for those with a religious objection to being photographed. Those people would also fill out an affidavit declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they are who they say their are and that they have a religious objection to being photographed.

These votes would count unless a county board of elections finds reason to believe the affidavits are false.

Riggs said the "reasonable impediment" provision in North Carolina's last voter ID law was "a mess" that disenfranchised more than 1,000 eligible voters. She said any bill that doesn't let voters without ID to simply sign a signature attestation and cast a regular, as opposed to a provisional, ballot will disenfranchise eligible voters.

"And the number of voters it will disenfranchise will be significant," Riggs said in an email.

Under the bill the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement also has to notify registered voters who don't have a driver's license or ID card of the new rules by Sept. 1, 2019, and make other efforts to publicize the coming requirement.

The board must also create a list of people who meet those criteria, and that list would be available to any registered voter upon request.