As Carolina Journal’s Barry Smith reports, a move to require a photo I.D. to vote in North Carolina is gaining momentum in the legislature.

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.

 

So it unconstitutional to require a photo ID to vote? That is a frequent criticism. Jeanette Doran of the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law, methodically explains why this is not the case.

As North Carolina considers Voter-ID requirements in recently introduced HB 589, opponents of such reforms raise constitutional concerns about Voter-ID, particularly photo ID. These concerns will be addressed and dispelled by analyzing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd., 553 U.S. 181 (2008), a case challenging Indiana’s Voter-ID law.  To date, this is the only Voter-ID case that the Supreme Court has considered (however, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Arizona’s Voter-ID law on March 18, 2013).  In a 6-3 decision, the Court refused to strike down Indiana’s Voter-ID law.