North Carolina now belongs to a group of 37 states that require identification when voting.
Here is the timeline of how it came to be:
In 2013, NC House Bill 589 was signed into law by Governor McCrory, which required photo identification when voting. A state Driver’s License, state issued ID Card, military ID or passport were forms of approved ID.
In September 2013, the US Dept. of Justice sued the state claiming that the new law discriminated against minorities.
On July 29, 2016 the US Court of Appeals claimed the ID requirement was racially discriminatory and struck it down.
On November 6, 2018 the majority of voters in North Carolina voted to approve Voter Identification when voting. A vote of “Yes” supported the requirement that voters would need to show a photo ID to vote in person. 55% of the voters that day said “Yes” which included 2,049,121 North Carolina voters. The change would require a person voting in person to provide a photo identification.
On December 5th and 6th of 2018, the NC General Assembly voted to approve SB 824 (Senate Bill) which provided the types of approved identification.
On December 14, 2018, Governor Roy Cooper chose to ignore the will of the people and vetoed SB 824.
On December 18, 2018 the state Senate voted to override the Governor’s veto.
On August 6, 2018 (before the election) the NAACP sued the NC General Assembly to remove the Voter ID amendment from the ballot in November.
On February 22, 2019 NC Judge Collings ruled in favor of the NAACP, striking down the voter identification amendment after the election.
On September 15, 2020, the court of appeals reversed Judge Collins ruling.
On December 2, 2020, a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the 2019 blocking of the Voter ID law.
On September 17, 2021, 3 Superior Court judges voted 2-1 that the voter law was unconstitutional.
On June 23, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of Senator Phillip Berger and other senators who supported the Voter identification law and challenged the Superior Court ruling.
On April 28, 2023, the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed the lower courts rulings and put the Voter ID requirement back into effect. Voter identification will be required this fall for elections. A person who does not have a photo ID can get a state ID card at a North Carolina DMV.