2021: A Year in Review
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

NC Council of Churches

Strength in Unity, Peace through Justice

  • Voices
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Members
    • Covenant Partners
    • Issue Statements
    • Governing Board
    • Careers
  • Programs
    • NC Interfaith Power & Light
      • NCIPL Overview
      • Faith in Action NCIPL
      • NCIPL Articles
      • NCIPL Resources
      • Upcoming Events for NCIPL
      • Contact NCIPL
    • Partners in Health & Wholeness
      • PHW Staff
      • Mini-Grants
      • PHW Collaborative Pledge
      • The Overdose Crisis: The Faith Community Responds
      • Mental Health Advocacy
      • BIPOC Mental Health Grant
      • Growing Communities of Inclusion: A Faithful Response to HIV
      • Healthy Aging
      • Citizen Science
      • PHW Articles
      • FAQs
  • Priorities
    • Racial Justice
    • The Overdose Crisis: The Faith Community Responds
    • Gun Violence Prevention
    • Criminal Justice
    • Immigrant Rights
    • Public Education
    • Farmworkers
    • Legislative Advocacy
    • Christian Unity
    • Peace
  • Events
  • Resources
    • COVID-19 Resources
    • Publications & Reports
    • Raleigh Report
    • Lectionary
    • Sermons
  • Donate
  • Council Store
  • Show Search

Search NC Council of Churches

Hide Search

Voting Rights Sense, in a New Light

Steve Ford, Former Volunteer Program Associate · June 29, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Click here to sign up to receive the Raleigh Report in your inbox

Over and over, we heard North Carolina’s stringent voter identification law, enacted by the Republican-controlled legislature in 2013 over the protests of voting rights advocates, described as simply a “commonsense” measure to deter ballot fraud.

We were supposed to ignore the fact that the kind of fraud by impersonation that a voter ID law might prevent has not been a problem in this state, with only a minuscule number of cases coming to light.

We were supposed to ignore the difficulty that many residents – elderly, disabled, living in remote communities – would face in complying with the requirement that they show a government-issued photo ID before they could cast an in-person ballot.

We were supposed to ignore the bureaucratic tangles making it hard for people without driver’s licenses to obtain a non-driver’s ID card from the DMV.

We were supposed to ignore the plain likelihood that the law would inconvenience or confound some voters to the point where they wouldn’t or couldn’t vote at all – and that those voters would tend to be drawn from the pool that leans Democratic. In other words, even though it was obvious that the ID rule was part of a larger Republican gambit to hold down the votes cast by people who tend to favor progressive candidates and policies, we were supposed to just sit down and shut up.

That didn’t happen. The Southern Coalition for Social Justice and the N.C. League of Women Voters were among those who not only didn’t shut up but also took their complaints of voter suppression to court.

Along the way, the evidence piled up. There was little room for doubt that specific people who were otherwise entitled to vote would be hindered from doing so under the photo ID requirement scheduled to take effect in next year’s elections.

Then, suddenly, legislators decided that rules they’d portrayed as so commonsensical – blowing off critics as whiners and sore losers – really didn’t make sense after all.

With state and federal lawsuits both pending, and with judges already having signaled their openness to the plaintiffs’ claims that rights were being violated, legislative leaders must have been warned by their attorneys that unless they made the ID rules less onerous, those rules might well be tossed as unconstitutional.

So on June 18, in a surprise maneuver done in such a way that it received little debate, Senate and House leaders engineered significant changes to try to defuse the threat to their law. Approved overwhelming in both chambers, the changes were promptly OK’d by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. (To see the revisions, go to House Bill 836, starting on page 5.)

No photo, no problem

Most notable is a more lenient approach toward eligible would-be voters who lack a proper photo ID and who have an excuse (drawn from a list of acceptable reasons) why they don’t have one.

Such a voter would sign a form stating that he or she had faced a “reasonable impediment” to obtaining the necessary ID – an obstacle such as disability, illness, an inflexible work schedule, lack of a birth certificate or lack of transportation. After providing other data to establish identity, such as date of birth and the last four digits of a Social Security number, the voter would be allowed to cast a provisional ballot, to be counted once the data were verified.

Another improvement: For someone who shows up at an early voting site without proper ID, officials are supposed to walk the person through the process of voting by absentee ballot (so long as the deadline for absentee voting hasn’t passed). That’s a nod to fairness, since absentee voters don’t have to comply with a photo ID rule.

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger had been a staunch supporter of the old ID regime, which may well have been the country’s strictest. But Berger indicated two years of “feedback” had hit home. The changes were made, he said, in light of that feedback, “to try to make sure everyone who is eligible to vote has the opportunity to vote and have their vote count.”

Now that’s common sense. And with regard to IDs, it’s what the former rule’s opponents had sought all along. Although those opponents — mindful that voter fraud by impersonation is very rare, judging by the piddling number of prosecutions, and that someone who tries it risks a felony charge — still wonder why it was necessary to impose a photo ID requirement in the first place.

The reality is that voter ID is merely the tip of the iceberg known as the Voter Identification Verification Act. It has given its Republican architects and apologists, including Gov. McCrory, a veneer of plausibility in their assertions that the act is just a prudent, commonsense antidote to fraud. The changes now in effect could defuse the ID controversy. But they do nothing to address well-founded objections to other aspects of the sweeping law – which was rammed through the legislature shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 watered down key provisions in the federal Voting Rights Act.

Voting, speaking, choosing

The Council of Churches has been outspoken in its critique of the law, in keeping with the Council’s view that equal and ample access to the polls is essential to a healthy system of democracy.

Of course that access has to be well-regulated so as to keep elections honest. But if voters are hindered in making their choices known, they lose the opportunity to have a say, through their representatives, in the decisions and public policies by which they’ll have to live their lives. That amounts to a betrayal of one of America’s basic civil rights. When the rules for voting are tilted against whole classes of citizens – the poor, the infirm, racial minorities still trying to overcome legacies of discrimination – the betrayal runs even deeper.

The 2013 law ventured down that very path not only with its now-weakened photo ID rule but also with its cutback in early voting, its elimination of the chance to register and vote on the same day and its bar against out-of-precinct voting.

Those measures remain on the books, and it’s clear who is more likely to see their vote totals suffer as a result. Hint: not Republicans.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in considering a request last fall to put the law on hold for the 2014 elections, concluded that scrapping same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting would be racially discriminatory because those options have been especially popular among African-Americans.

As it turned out, the Supreme Court thought otherwise and allowed the election to proceed as the legislature envisioned. But that may well not be the end of the story.

A broad challenge to the law is set to be heard in federal district court in Winston-Salem on July 13. That impending trial could have been in Republican legislators’ minds when “common sense” about voter ID suddenly took on a different meaning.

Perhaps they also were hoping to dampen the enthusiasm of voting rights advocates aligned with the state’s NAACP chapter who plan to demonstrate in Winston-Salem as the trial begins. The voter ID rule, unnecessary from the get-go, may have been defanged, but the underlying law still has dangerous teeth.

Filed Under: Blog, Homepage Featured, Raleigh Report Tagged With: Elections, Equality & Reconciliation, Moral Mondays, N.C. General Assembly, Race/Ethnicity

About Steve Ford, Former Volunteer Program Associate

Much goes on in North Carolina's state capital that's important to the Council of Churches. I'm glad to have a chance to help follow the action, transitioning from my career with The News & Observer of Raleigh, where I retired in 2012 as editorial page editor. I'm originally from Virginia but have lived in Cary so long I remember the Kildaire Farm barn.

Read more of my commentary here.

Reader Interactions

More Like This

Politicians’ fear: Too many votes
Election Machinery in High Gear
Churches’ Watchwords: Every Vote Counts!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Anonymous comments or comments that target individuals will not be posted (please include your first and last name). All comments must be on topic and respectful. Comments will not be posted until they have been reviewed by a moderator. Comments do not reflect the positions of the NC Council of Churches.

Footer

Contact

NC Council of Churches
27 Horne St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 828-6501
info@ncchurches.org

Facebook

Partners in Health and Wholeness

Featured

Voting Rights Sense, in a New Light

Latest Tweets

RT @RasuShrestha We grieve and are mortified by the staggering number of mass shootings and other acts of violence with guns in our country. We need action, not just thoughts & prayers. Sign the petition now if you agree: ✅change.org/p/interfa… #GunControlNow pic.twitter.com/hx2O…

About 32 minutes ago

Are you passionate about the health and wellbeing of North Carolina communities? Then apply for a job with our Partners in Health and Wholeness as the Engagement and Program Administrator! ncchurches.org/2022/… pic.twitter.com/0Q7Y…

Yesterday

The U.S. Supreme Court, as if rushing to settle old grievances, in recent weeks has thrashed about in a virtual frenzy of “originalism” – never mind the consequences for America’s civic well-being. ncchurches.org/2022/…

About 2 days ago

Faith Leaders! Last chance to apply this training! Learn to incorporate suicide prevention programming into your congregation’s activities. Apply at the link! ncivpb.iad1.qualtric… pic.twitter.com/vFmT…

About 2 days ago

As people of faith, we must commit ourselves to doing all that we can to support and embrace the LGBTQ+ older adults in our communities and beyond. Read more from Partners in Health and Wholeness Associate Director, Krista Westervelt: ncchurches.org/2022/…

About 6 days ago

Follow @ncchurches

Latest Tweets

Greetings! Be sure to stop by our table at the Western NC Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church at Lake Junaluska this weekend! We hope to see you there! pic.twitter.com/30bk…

About 3 weeks ago

Hello twitter family! Be sure to stop by our table at the NC Conference of the United Methodist Church in Greenville, NC starting today! We hope to see you there! pic.twitter.com/l6X3…

About 3 weeks ago

Our mini grant cycle is now open!!! pic.twitter.com/eyRp…

About a month ago

RT @faithleadership Faith coalitions are addressing the opioid crisis by providing resources, connections and a destigmatizing vision. lght.ly/45iam80 Featuring: @okconfchurches | @ODMHSASINFO | @healthandfaith | @ncchurches | @DukeTMCI | @shannon_fleck

About a month ago

Join us for Sacred Conversations: Older Adults - Fraud & Scams on Friday, June 24th from 11 AM to 12 PM and learn to recognize common scams targeted towards older adults and how to protect yourself and those in your faith communities. ncchurches.ourpowerb…

About 2 months ago

Follow @healthandfaith

Latest Tweets

RT @mocleanair A new study found hundreds of toxins in natural gas from residential sites, including toluene and benzene in 94-95% of samples. Read more, call ALL your elected leaders for just clean energy: ow.ly/ICTi50JKSug @GCVoters @scennetwork1 @uscan @enviRN @docsforclimate @CEHN

Last week

RT @GeorgiaIPL The Supreme Court’s ruling limits the EPA’s ability to set the strong standards needed to cut carbon pollution and tackle the climate crisis. We can’t afford to stop fighting climate change. pic.twitter.com/XTC7…

Last week

RT @scennetwork1 Join us for Season 2 of @CJYpodcast! We spoke to Catherine Coleman Flowers, one of the founding mothers of Environmental Justice from the South, about the lessons learned from her activism with the civil rights movement to the modern EJ movement. #SouthernVoices #CJY #Podcast pic.twitter.com/TzEr…

Last week

RT @scennetwork1 We thank everyone who joined us for our first in-person convening since the pandemic started! We had a fantastic time and had over 30 organizations from the Southeast represented!🎉 pic.twitter.com/1KYc…

Last week

RT @scennetwork1 We made the news last week! NC Faith Leaders Call on the U.S. to Pay 'Fair Share' for Climate-Related Loss! Read the full article here: publicnewsservice.or… pic.twitter.com/nltj…

Last week

Follow @ncipl

Latest Tweets

Copyright © 2022 NC Council of Churches · All Rights Reserved · Website by Tomatillo Design · Hosted by WP Engine