RALEIGH, N.C. — The state’s election administration apparatus is racing to implement new photo ID requirements for voters in accordance with a landmark ruling from the state Supreme Court in April. With only months until municipal elections, some worry there’s not enough time or resources to put the new measures in place.
“Election preparation is similar to a space shuttle launch,” Damon Circosta, former chair of the State Board of Elections, said in an email to The News & Observer. “Every aspect of the operation must be planned, choreographed, trained up and prepared. Hastily implementing photo ID, especially if done so on the cheap and without significant communication with the public, is asking for a disaster.”
While the 2024 presidential election is more than a year away, municipal elections start in September for some counties — but absentee ballots and other forms must be ready a month in advance.
That means the state has a little over two months to implement voter ID: training poll workers, printing new absentee ballots, creating new administrative rules and attempting to inform every voter in the state that they’re going to need a photo ID when they come to the ballot box.
“It’s not an immediate turn of the switch,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said in an interview with The N&O.
Many of the implementation details for voter ID are laid out in a 2018 law passed by the General Assembly, but it requires time, people and money to come into compliance with that process — money the elections board may not have.
Funding the change
The board requested $6.5 million from the legislature for voter ID contingency funds, intended to send mailers to voters informing them of the change, launch an advertising campaign and train poll workers.
“While I understand that there are many competing priorities this session, as there are in every session, I ask that you prioritize the unique role the State Board of Elections plays in building confidence in our government, supporting our counties, and safeguarding the right of North Carolinians to vote in fair and accessible elections in 2023 and 2024,” Brinson Bell wrote in a May 12 letter to legislative leaders. “The task ahead of our elections officials in preparing for the 2024 general election is significant. But with your support, we are up to the task.”
The House’s budget proposal would allocate $3.5 million to the state board to help implement voter ID, but the Senate’s proposal offers no extra funds for that purpose. In fact, according to Brinson Bell, the Senate’s budget actually cuts the board’s staff by two.
She said the potential budget cuts come “at a time when our state is growing, at a time when we’ve been designated as critical infrastructure and have a heightened awareness and posture that we have to have about cybersecurity.”
Senate leader Phil Berger told The N&O the funding is still subject to negotiation.
When voter ID was passed in 2018, the legislature appropriated some funds for implementation, but no money has been approved for the change this time around.
While the state board would like to have the resources to do public outreach about the new requirements, some county boards are taking matters into their own hands.
Derek Bowens, Durham County elections director, said his board will be holding open-house seminars to discuss the change with voters, as well as promoting it on social media, sending out disclaimers with new voter registration cards and potentially even publicizing it on radio and television.
“We’re confident here in Durham that our county Board of Commissioners will make the investments necessary for voting to be as smooth as possible,” Bowens said. “I can’t say the same, I’m sure, for other counties that may not be as resource-rich as Durham County.”
New election rules
Money aside, the state board has to work quickly to determine exactly how photo ID will play out practically when voters come to the polls.
While most of the implementation is laid out in the 2018 law, there are a host of specific details not addressed by the law that the board has the discretion to determine.
For one, the law lays out a series of accepted excuses for a voters who don’t have an ID. Voters meeting one of these excuses must fill out an ID exception form and then vote with a provisional ballot. Once the county board of elections determines the accuracy of the form, the vote will be counted. However, the law doesn’t specify how a board should investigate these exception forms.
Also, county boards are supposed to begin offering free photo IDs to voters, but the process hasn’t been entirely ironed out. Much of the equipment to do this was purchased more than five years ago when voter ID first was set to go into effect and now requires updates.
Brinson Bell said the board could potentially have the county ID option available by early July.
Polling places will also have to accept some student and employee IDs, but the institutions that issue the cards will have to apply through the state board to have them approved. The board just released its application for this on Tuesday.
A list of approved ID cards should be available in July.
The board will hold a meeting on Friday where it will consider new administrative rules.
What happens once voter ID does go into effect?
Once voter ID is implemented, many still have concerns about its effect on the election.
Opponents have long argued that voter ID laws negatively affect turnout.
“Just the existence of the law has the tendency for some voters to just prevent them from even attempting to vote,” Jeff Loperfido, one of the lawyers who argued against voter ID to the state Supreme Court, said.
A 2021 study analyzed the impact of voter ID laws in North Carolina, which were briefly in effect for the 2016 primary elections. It found that among the 3% of voters who did not have an ID, the law caused a 0.7% turnout decrease.
“The general takeaway is that it does decrease turnout, but not by a large amount — and that it has particularly negative effects on African Americans,” Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said.
The other concern some have shared is the potential for litigation surrounding election results, as happened in the 2020 presidential election.
Since voters who show up without an ID have to cast a provisional ballot, this could lead to delays in determining a winner in close races. County staff have to determine each provisional ballot’s voter eligibility before approving the vote.
No election results are finalized until the provisional ballots are sorted through. In 2020, long delays in determining a winner were the impetus for several lawsuits.
“If 2024 is as ramped-up an environment in North Carolina as we think it’s going to be, then, yes, it could absolutely lead to delays and litigation,” Cooper said.