House Committee Gives OK to Voter ID Bill | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Barry Smith, who is an associate editor to the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

If passed into law, voters would need to provide ID in 2016 elections

    RALEIGH     A key House committee gave its blessing to a voter ID bill after grinding through hours of debate on Wednesday.

    The bill, which passed the House Elections Committee by a 23-11 vote, would require voters to provide an approved photo ID by the 2016 elections.

    Supporters say the bill is geared toward curtailing fraud. Opponents argue that it's not needed and would potentially disenfranchise voters.

    "We have ID fraud that is rampant in this country," Rep. Marilyn Avila, R-Wake, said, asking fellow committee members why they would think the voting process would not be affected by ID fraud. "The privilege we have to vote is so precious."

    "People try to cheat in our society," Rep. John Blust, R-Guilford, said. "And we're supposed to sit here and think they'd never try to steal an election?"

    Blust said that no one would be denied his or her right to vote.

    Rep. Mickey Michaux, D-Durham, disagreed, saying the photo ID requirement would place "roadblocks" to people's right to vote.

    "It is not a privilege," Michaux said. "It is a right to vote... Under our U.S. Constitution, you cannot abridge that right to vote."

    "We're going backwards," Rep. Susan Fisher, D-Buncombe, said.

    The bill would allow for a number of state and federally-issued photo IDs to be used to confirm identity when voting. Those include a driver's license, a DMV identity card, a passport, a government-issued employee ID card, a military ID card, a veterans ID card, an identity card issued by the UNC or community college system, a government issued card for police, firefighters, EMS, or law enforcement officer.

    People 70 years old or older could use any such card that had not expired when they reached their 70th birthday, even if the card has later expired.

    Tribal identification cards were removed from the approved cards.

    Exemptions would be in place for people with religious objections to being photographed, disabled voters, and curbside voters.

    The bill would also make changes to absentee voting. Voters applying for absentee ballots would have to provide some sort of identifying information, such as a driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

    Rep. Harry Warren, R-Rowan, said that elections officials would phase in the requirements and work aggressively to educate the public on the new law.

    The Elections Committee is one of three likely stops for the bill before it reaches the House floor. The bill is scheduled for a Finance Committee review on Thursday.

    Rep. Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, and House Rules Committee chairman, said the bill would also likely need to be looked at by the House Appropriations Committee, probably early next week. Moore said GOP leaders are targeting House floor votes for the bill next Wednesday and Thursday.