The North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE) has proposed changes to voter ID rules. I offered a public comment at an SBE hearing on June 9. The prepared text of that comment is below:
I am Andy Jackson with the John Locke Foundation. I support both the proposed voter ID rules changes.
Many of the changes in the rules are to comply with General Statutes 163‑166.16(c) and 163-230.1(e1), which require county boards to make decisions regarding provisional ballots and absentee ballot cures by the Friday after election day.
There are also changes to 17.0101 and 17.0109 on the vote required for a board to find that an affidavit claiming an exception to the voter ID requirement is false, from unanimous to majority. That is a welcome change.
The State Board of Elections erred when it added the unanimity requirements in 2024. Those unanimity requirements are not found in the relevant statute. 163‑166.16(f) states, “the county board of elections shall find that the provisional ballot is valid unless the county board has grounds to believe the affidavit is false.”
Compare that to 163‑166.16.(b), which does require a unanimous vote, “A voter shall be permitted to vote unless the judges of election present unanimously agree that the photo identification presented does not bear a reasonable resemblance to that voter.”
While the State Board is not specifically prohibited from setting different voting requirements, when the General Assembly wishes to require unanimity in election procedures, it will enact it into law. The full context of the statute makes clear that the legislature did not intend for a unanimous vote to be required for county boards to find “grounds to believe the affidavit [for not having an ID] is false.”
To better comport with state law, the State Board should approve the rule changes as proposed.
The SBE has posted a recording of the hearing.
Here is a link to the full text of the proposed recount rules and a review of them. Here is how you can provide a public comment to the SBE on the proposals through Tuesday, July 14, by any of the methods below:
- Online: Public Comment Portal: 2026 Photo ID Rules
- Email:[email protected] (Specify that you are commenting on the recount rules)
- Mail: Attn: Rulemaking Coordinator, P.O. Box 27255, Raleigh, NC 27611-7255 (Specify that you are commenting on the recount rules)
