NC elections board confirmed ID lawsuit resolution, approved early voting plans

As a matter of procedure, the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) read over a settlement reached in the case of the Republican National Committee (RNC) v. the NCSBE at their meeting on Friday.

NCSBE General Counsel Paul Cox said that under the Open Meetings law, it is required that once a public body makes a settlement in a closed session, that settlement, once executed, has to be reported out at the next public meeting.

State and national Republican groups and the NCSBE reached a deal last month to end the 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.

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.

“The previous board made the correct decision to allow that ID but the Court of Appeals order disagrees, and we are bound to obey that, and I think with the way technology is changing about digital ID’s that this will not be the last word on this subject,” said Democrat board member Siobhan Millen at Friday’s meeting.

Fellow Democratic board member Jeff Carmon agreed.

“I, too, vote in support of this as a result of a court order,” he said. “It is not something that I am in agreement with, but I know we will see this again as we move towards digital driver’s licenses and things of that nature,” he said.

Republican member Bob Rucho said that he wasn’t present for the earlier discussion with the previous board, as he was just appointed this year, but said that the board should be required to follow the law, and when the General Assembly allows for change or makes the change, they should institute it then.

Carmon said he agreed and noted that the law was a little vague on that matter.

 “We’re going to have an interesting few years to go,” he said.

“I know this is something that our previous board disagreed on how to handle and of course we do have the input from the appellate courts, and ultimately, this is a resolution of this case, but I do believe from Miss Millen’s point that we will likely have this topic come up again, whether it is from pronouncement of the General Assembly, or otherwise as things progress as we move forward, and as always, this board will be called upon to make certain decisions, and I’m sure there’ll be plenty of folks there to call us out on it if they disagree with us,” Republican Secretary and board member Stacy “Four” Eggers IV stated.

The board also discussed early voting plans for municipal elections.

First, early voting plans for Lee, Mecklenburg, and Forsyth counties for September municipal elections were discussed. All three counties reached unanimous agreements in line with statutory requirements and Mecklenburg added additional voting sites.

Since all the plans were unanimous, the board confirmed statutory compliance and approved them.

The board also extended the deadline for the remainder of the state’s 97 counties to get their October or November early voting plans in.

They voted on July 21 to set a deadline for counties hosting November and October elections to submit their early voting plans to the state board as of today, Aug. 8. The board was informed that a few of the counties have not been able to meet the deadline for various reasons or or need some extra time to get to their final decision. The board agreed to give an extra week with an Aug. 15 deadline. Some consideration was also given because the boards in those counties were just sworn in on July 22.

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