The digital student identifications that nearly all University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students use shouldn’t be allowed as voter photo identification, the NC Court of Appeals ruled Friday.
The State Board of Elections approved the IDs earlier this year after getting UNC to make more than 20,000 students at UNC who could be affected if they don’t have another form of ID and cannot get one by Election Day, a little more than a month away.
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The court ruling was a win for the Republican Party, which had sued to block the student IDs.
Republicans said in the lawsuit they were worried that the mobile ID’s approval “could allow hundreds or thousands of ineligible voters” to vote. They argued an electronic card was easier to alter and harder for a precinct worker to examine.
The Democratic National Committee and a UNC-Chapel Hill student group joined the board in court to oppose the restraining order. They said the board rightly determined that the digital ID met the security and photo requirements set in state law in which to qualify.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory denied a temporary restraining order sought by the Republican National Committee and state GOP more than a week ago, according to an online court record posted after a hearing.
The ruling comes as potentially millions planning to vote in the fall elections haven’t had to show an ID under the state’s 2018 voter ID law. Legal challenges meant the mandate didn’t get carried out the first time until the low-turnout municipal elections in 2023.
UNC and the State Board of Elections didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.