WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (CN) — Arguments began Monday morning in a federal trial over a 2018 North Carolina voter ID law that requires in-person voters to show identification at the polls.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs told U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs, an Obama appointee, that the law disenfranchises Black and Latino voters, violates the Voting Rights Act, and deters minorities from voting.
The defendants, which include Republican leaders and the state Board of Elections, argue that their voter ID requirement is one of the most permissive in the nation and that the legislature wasn’t required to provide any exceptions to the photo ID rule, but still did, allowing voters to fill out an exemption form.
“North Carolina allows voters to vote with or without ID, and any deterrent is minimal,” said David Thompson, attorney for intervenor-defendants Speaker Tim Moore and President Pro Tempore Phil Berger.
The General Assembly swiftly passed the disputed law, Senate Bill 824, in 2018 after a constitutional amendment was ratified requiring photo ID. It remained in limbo for several years after the presiding judge blocked it with an injunction in 2019. The law went into effect for municipal elections in 2023.
“The people of North Carolina have the right to govern themselves and have the democratic legislature enact a photo ID law,” Thompson said.
Kathleen Roblez, attorney for the plaintiffs, said the requirement “attempts to solve a voter ID problem, which simply doesn’t exist,” adding it was passed based on lawmakers' false notions of the prevalence of in-person voter ID fraud.
In-person voter fraud is practically nonexistent in North Carolina. The Board of Elections reported only one case of it in the 2016 general election out of nearly 4.8 million votes.
“Voter impersonation is so rare in North Carolina, it’s a statistical zero,” said Roblez. In her opening arguments, she said the ID requirement is, at best, a disruption to voters, and at worst, intimidation.
“This case is ultimately about the voters. While the number of (reports of voting fraud) is statistically insignificant, the number of voters who have been disenfranchised isn’t,” she said.
The current version of the law accepts a variety of voter identification cards, including drivers licenses, tribal IDs, military identification cards, and certain employment and student IDs. Residents attempting to vote without an ID can fill out a "reasonable impediment declaration form" explaining what prevented them from presenting identification. Voters can also cast a provisional ballot and return with their photo ID for their ballot to be counted.
Elma Hairston, president of the High Point Branch of the NAACP, said people are wary of casting provisional ballots, because they are afraid their vote won’t count.
“When you educate people on a new process or procedure, it takes time to understand. And when you don’t understand, you don’t go to the polls to vote,” she said.
Witnesses brought by the plaintiffs also said that the voter ID requirement burdens older voters, who may not have their documents in their possession, and disabled voters.
Needing a photo ID makes voting more difficult for rural voters, who may not have access to transportation, said Deborah Maxwell, the president of the state NAACP.
Residents can get free voter IDs from their county board of elections or DMV during early voting and on Election Day, but not all counties have DMVs, and rural voters may struggle to get transportation and time off from work in order to get a free voting ID, she said.
“The voter ID requirement has had an impact on older voters,” said Maxwell. “They were born at home, by a midwife, not at a hospital. Their birth was recorded in a Bible. It’s not an easy process to get a birth certificate if you were born at home.”
It can take up to two months to get a birth certificate if one wasn't issued at birth, she said. And a birth certificate is required in order to get a photo ID.
“I am the child of a woman who never had a photo ID, but she voted every (election),” Maxwell said.
Iliana Santillan, the executive director of El Pueblo, a Latinx nonprofit that translates voting resources into Spanish, said that a lack of Spanish language signs and ballots or multilingual poll workers makes voting challenging for speakers of the language. She also said second-generation immigrants whose parents are not legal residents are hesitant to fill out government documents such as voter registrations and provisional ballots.
The photo ID requirement has “added an extra layer of challenges” to her organization's work, she said, because they are already dealing with an inherited fear of the government.
Over 98% of voters voted in person using a photo ID in the March 2024 elections, with provisional ballots making up less than 1% of voters. Terence Steed, an attorney representing the Board of Elections, said the requirement had a “minimal impact” on the nearly 1.8 million voters.
The case has come to Biggs, an Obama appointee, before, but trial was canceled twice following appeals, and ongoing disputes between the parties over additional exhibits and expert witnesses remain.
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