NC’s voter ID law blocks voters, not fraud

The legality of North Carolina’s new voter law will be reviewed in a federal trial that starts this week. Fortunately for the law’s GOP authors, they are protected by legislative privilege and won’t have to testify about the motive behind making it harder for people to vote.

But what if they had to? After swearing to tell the truth, they’d have to take the Fifth. Otherwise they’d risk perjury by repeating the claim that the General Assembly changed the voting law to prevent election fraud. Then they’d get into deeper trouble by testifying that the notion that the changes would suppress voting by young people and African Americans – two groups that tend to vote Democratic – never entered their minds.

They’d have to concede that, yes, it’s true, Republicans who control both chambers waited until the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act before they passed a wish-list of voting restrictions and changes.

But ultimately, this case brought by the U.S. Justice Department, the N.C. NAACP and voting rights advocates won’t be about the truth. The trial will be about what’s legal. In that respect, the law may survive.

That’s because the cornerstone of the law – the rigid photo ID requirement – was abruptly softened by the legislature just weeks before the trial. Now instead of being turned away, voters who can claim a reasonable cause for not having an ID can sign a form and cast a vote. The photo ID issue will be taken up separately at a later date.

With the ID requirement weakened, the state is left with a mishmash of voting changes that are restrictive and pointless for any reason other than voter suppression. That only clarifies how this law is another instance of legislative mischief that will cost taxpayers more to fight yet another court battle and shuffle state regulations to comply.

The state Board of Elections has made a strong effort to apply this flawed law in the fairest way possible. The board held hearings around the state, gathered comments from voting rights advocates and voters and is drawing up new rules for how the ID requirement and exceptions to it will be handled at the polls. The board is also pushing to retrain poll workers and to prepare a public information campaign about what voters will need to know when the ID requirement begins in 2016.

But it’s likely that the board’s efforts won’t be enough to offset the confusion and delays the new law will create. The board’s public hearings previewed the confusion of voters and poll workers about how to determine a “reasonable resemblance” between a photo ID and the person trying to vote and what would qualify as a “reasonable impediment” for someone who says they could not obtain a proper ID.

Lawmakers said it would be no problem for people without a proper ID to obtain one. All they need to do is go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and get a state-issued ID for free. But obtaining the supporting documents and transportation is a challenge for some people. Others don’t know the change is coming.

The state Board of Elections estimates that of the state’s 6.3 million registered voters 218,000 don’t have an acceptable ID. The state Department of Transportation announced in June that that DMV has issued 1,019 free voter ID cards.

This solution in search of a problem has become comical at times. In April 2014 the state Board of Elections told a legislative commitee that a computer cross check with 28 other states turned up 35,750 people with the same first and last names and same date of birth who voted in North Carolina and another state in 2012.

That prompted then-state Republican Party Chairman Claude Pope to say in a statement, “The massive potential voter fraud in North Carolina revealed today represents a significant threat to the integrity of our elections process. It’s disturbing that liberal Democrats like William Barber, Kay Hagan, and Roy Cooper seemingly condone voter fraud by opposing efforts to require voters to show a photo ID.”

Thom Tillis, state House speaker at the time, and state Senate leader Phil Berger jumped in with a joint statement that said, “While we are alarmed to hear evidence of widespread voter error and fraud, we are encouraged to see the common-sense law passed to ensure voters are who they say they are is working. These findings should put to rest ill-informed claims that problems don’t exist and help restore the integrity of our elections process.”

The elections board staff cautioned restraint about drawing conclusions from the early findings. Board investigators looked for serial double voters to sort out mistakes and detect real intent to double vote. After comparing the voting data from the 2012 and 2014 elections, investigators found only 22 people who voted in two states in the consecutive elections. Of those, 11 have been referred to county prosecutors for further review.

Not only did the horde of voting cheaters shrink from 35,750 to maybe 11, the act of voting in two states would not necessarily be stopped by presenting a photo ID.

The new law goes on trial this week, but the verdict is already clear. The law targets an illusion while doing real damage to the right to vote.

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 4:00 PM with the headline "NC’s voter ID law blocks voters, not fraud."