State and national Republican groups and the North Carolina State Board of Elections have reached a deal ending a lawsuit over voter identification and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s digital ID.
The elections board agreed not to accept any “electronic identification” as a voter ID unless the General Assembly approves a new law permitting that type of ID.
Lawyers for the GOP groups and the elections board filed a joint stipulation of dismissal at 5:03 p.m. Monday in Wake County Superior Court, less than a day before a Superior Court judge was scheduled to hear arguments to have the lawsuit dismissed.
Both the Democratic National Committee and the Affirmative Action Coalition had filed motions to have the case thrown out as moot. The DNC and the coalition intervened in the case last year. The AAC works with Democratic operative Marc Elias’ law firm.
The Republican National Committee and North Carolina Republican Party filed suit in 2024 to block the state elections board from allowing the UNC CH digital ID from being used for voting purposes.
The State Board of Elections, then with a 3-2 Democratic majority, had voted to accept the digital ID as voter ID. Wake County Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory, a Democrat, upheld that decision.
But the state Court of Appeals issued an order in September blocking the lower court’s decision. A unanimous three-judge appellate panel prevented the UNC CH digital ID from being accepted as a valid voter ID during the 2024 general election.
Appellate court rules blocked the release of the participating judges’ names at the time of the ruling. Ninety days later, the court revealed that Judges John Tyson, Jeff Carpenter, and Michael Stading made up the panel that issued the order. All are Republicans.
Since that decision, the partisan makeup of the State Board of Elections has shifted from 3-2 in Democrats’ favor to a 3-2 Republican-majority board.
“The North Carolina State Board of Elections is not authorized to allow any form of electronic identification to satisfy North Carolina voter photo identification requirement found in N.C.G.S. § 163-166.16 and § 163-230.1 other than photo identification that satisfies all of the conditions found in § 163-166.16(a), unless and until the North Carolina General Assembly duly enacts a law that has the effect of permitting electronic identification to satisfy the voter photo identification requirement, where such electronic identification is not already permitted by law to satisfy the requirement,” according to the court document signed Monday by lawyers for the GOP groups and the state elections board. “The North Carolina State Board of Elections shall not promulgate any rule or numbered memorandum that purports to allow any electronic identification in violation of the foregoing sentence.”
“Plaintiffs satisfied their claims and stipulate to dismissal,” the document added. The Republican groups and elections board will cover their own court costs.
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