SCSJ Statement Regarding Proposed North Carolina Voter ID Constitutional Amendment

Voting Rights
RALEIGH, N.C. – On June 7, 2018, North Carolina Speaker of the House Rep. Tim Moore introduced HB 1092, a constitutional amendment that would require voters in the state to present photo identification before voting.  If the legislation passes both chambers of the General Assembly by a three-fifths margin, the amendment would go on the November ballot.
North Carolina held one election (the May 2016 primary) with a requirement for voters to show photo identification after the General Assembly passed HB 589 in 2013.  In that one election, many eligible North Carolina voters were unduly burdened and disenfranchised.
House Bill 589, including a photo identification requirement for voters, was struck down in July 2016 by the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.  In its decision, the Fourth Circuit found that the law, which included other elections changed that would predominantly impact voters of color, was intended to “target African-Americans with almost surgical precision” for exclusion from the political process.
After the introduction of HB 1092Allison Riggs, Senior Voting Rights Attorney for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and the attorney who successfully argued the case against the 2013 Monster Voter Suppression Law in the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, issued the following statement:
“It’s unfortunate that legislators think that they can hide another unconstitutional voter suppression effort by putting it on the ballot as a constitutional amendment and trying to trick voters into doing their dirty work for them.  A federal court found their previous scheme to require photo ID and limit voting access were blatant attempts to disenfranchise voters of color.  What was filed today is no different.  This is an obvious effort to implement a policy that has been shot down as being racially discriminatory.”
“Just as when the legislature tried this in 2011 and 2013, we know that thousands of eligible North Carolina voters lack photo identification.  These voters are disproportionately voters of color, elderly voters, women, and voters with physical challenges.  The legislature continues to intend the effect of its voter suppression efforts–the exclusion of these groups of North Carolinians from accessing their fundamental right to vote.”