North Carolina Legislative News

Bill Breakdown: Voter ID and Early Voting

Below is my rundown of the new House Bill 589, the voter ID bill, which also shrinks North Carolina's early voting period, and ends same day registration.

The bill itself is 57 pages long, and the legislative summary is 16 pages. It has a number of campaign finance sections I don't yet understand well enough to describe here, but I'll work toward that.

Here's what I see in the bill, starting with the ID provisions, moving to the more important changes in early voting/registration, then getting into the rest of the things the bill would do.

• Unless there's a natural disaster, photo ID is pretty much required election day starting in 2016 unless you file a religious objection at least 25 days before election.
• ID must not be expired, unless you're 70 and up.
• IDs, for those who don't yet have them, will cost $20-$32, unless the applicant is blind, at least 70 years old, mentally or physically disabled, homeless and can prove it or just signs a document saying they don't have photo ID.
• OK: drivers licenses, passports, military or veterans IDs, tribal enrollment cards, and out of state licenses - but that last one only if thee votere registered within the last 90 days. Not OK: Other IDs, including student IDs.
• If you vote curbside - meaning you come to the polls, but are infirmed and can't/don't go inside to vote - you don't have to have a photo ID. You can use one of the current allowed documents "that shows the name and address of the voter: a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document" as listed in G.S. 163-166.12(a)(2).
• Early voting period cut by a week. Instead of starting the third Thursday before an election, early voting would start the the second Thursday before the election. It will still run through 1 p.m. on the Saturday before the election, but local boards of election can no longer extend that Saturday voting to 5 p.m.
• No more same day registration. That undoes a relatively recent change in election laws that allowed people to register and vote on the same day.
• Say bye-bye to pre-registration, the process of pre-registering 16 and 17 year olds to vote so they don't have to register once they turn 18 and become eligible to vote. Registration will still be available at high schools, but only for 18 year olds and up.
• Straight ticket/party voting is eliminated.
• Right now, before election day, anyone in a county can challenge any one else in the county's right to vote in local elections. On election day, they have to be in the same precinct. The bill changes that to in the state before election day and in the county on election day.
• Absentee ballots would now need the signatures of two witnesses (NOTE: I think this was amended in committee this afternoon to allow notary publics to do this instead, but I am not certain.) The current rule is one. You or a close relative can request an absentee ballot up until 5 p.m. of the Tuesday of the election. The request must include the voter's driver's license number or number from another ID.
• The bill adds 10 new poll observers, appointed by county party chairmen, to work county wide during elections, in addition to the two per polling place each party is allowed now.
• Voter registration forms must be signed by a person, using a pen. No more of this autopen stuff.
• Paper ballots required: As of Jan. 1, 2018, "no voting system (may) be used unlesss that system generates an individual paper ballot marked by the voter."

CONTINUED:  http://www.news-record.com/blogs/north_state_politics/article_082d32de-f3cd-11e2-85c3-0019bb30f31a.html