Voter ID Details Revealed, Leaving Little for Left to Oppose

RALEIGH – The details of a voter photo identification draft bill were released Tuesday, bringing an end to uncertainty about just what kind of identification requirements lawmakers would push to pass in response to a majority of voters across the state approved a Voter ID Constitutional Amendment in the election two weeks ago.

After the voters weighed in, the Left was forced to modify its attacks on Voter ID. What was described as a racist motivation by Republicans, became a more comical effort to assign Republican motivations of wanting to suppress the votes of students and wallet theft victims. The release of the draft bill, though, leaves the Left with nothing of substance to oppose. (Don’t worry; they’ll find a way to oppose it)

The draft is 13 pages, and begins with a provision requiring county boards of elections to issue, at no charge, photo identification cards to registered voters. Right off the bat this provisions dispels the (unsupported) suggestion by the Left that Voter ID disenfranchises the poor. They’ll get cards for free, after their identity and information is confirmed, and the cards don’t expire for eight years.

In addition to those Voter ID cards issued at the local level, the draft bill lists other identification that will satisfy the requirement in order to vote. The list is extensive, and includes student ID cards which were not included in the 2013 legislation.

All military or veteran ID cards will also be accepted, regardless of expiration, and persons over 70 can use accepted ID cards that are expired as long as they were active as of their 70th birthday.

The list isn’t not necessarily complete either. Rep. David Lewis (R-Harnett), a leader in the N.C. House on election issues, indicated that lawmakers will hear on Monday from officials representing community colleges and private colleges about their student ID cards and whether they rise to the level of acceptance at the polls.

Our agenda for Monday will also include presentations from private colleges & universities as well as community colleges on their ID cards and discussions regarding state and local government employee identification cards. #ncga #ncpol https://t.co/ihdaV94Hht

— David R Lewis (@RepDavidRLewis) November 20, 2018

Included in the draft are exceptions for religious objections (to having photo taken) or reasonable impediments to presenting ID at the time of casting a vote (wallet theft victims?). Those voters will be asked to signed affidavits attesting to their situation and then complete a provisional ballot which will be subject to the normal confirmation process.

There are, of course, other rules such as when you must secure ID related to election proximity, but overall the draft legislation appears to implement Voter ID as approved by voters themselves while leaving nothing for the Left to complain about.

The IDs will be judged by poll workers, just like presenting ID anywhere else, to confirm that the voter is the person on the card. Common sense protections for integrity at the ballot box.

The Left, however, is so addicted to opposing Republicans for purely political purposes that they are still waiting for another shoe to drop. They’ve maintained for years that these evil Republicans were out to disenfranchise minority, elderly, and poor voters, and now that the draft does NOTHING of the sort, they aren’t sure what to make of it.

Republicans released a draft a week before any legislative action that would not prevent a single eligible voter from casting a ballot. The Left will not engage in any self-reflection or mea culpa. They will not figure that, perhaps, they went overboard with the fear mongering and assigning evil motivations to conservatives. Instead they will attack what they can, and then ultimately move on to another target and act like none of this happened.

We’ll bring you more color on the Voter ID legislation when meetings on the topic get underway at the General Assembly next week.