It has been revealed that the 2024 election will be a completely different experience for North Carolina, which has been indicated to have more than 5.5 million voters.
In the past years, there have been recorded attacks on voting rights by the gerrymandered GOP supermajority in the state Legislature; in the new rule, it has been indicated that North Carolina voters will be required to show a photo ID at the polls, such form identification will be happening for the first time in a presidential election in the region.
Some other issues in voting have been new restrictions on vote-by-mail and lawsuits targeting student voters. It was indicated that the Republicans are doing everything possible to ensure that they suppress the vote among core Democratic voting blocs. The recent issues and discussions have come to the centre stage after Hurricane Helene. The barriers have been indicated to be human-made, which have been exacerbated in western North Carolina.
The challenges have not restricted voters from North Carolina, who include college students and voters living in storm-affected areas who have turned in to start their early voting in high numbers. It was witnessed that the voting officials who have been dedicated have shown a good level of professionalism to ensure that the voting process was smooth, safe, and convenient.
One of the important points in North Carolina’s ongoing voter ID fight is the decision to accept IDs from North Carolina’s colleges and universities. The decision was greeted with rounds of lawsuits, statutory revisions and rulemaking; the discussion noted that students and employees at North Carolina’s colleges and universities are now permitted to use their school IDs for voting. The condition attached noted that for the ID to be allowed, the ID must have been pre-approved by the state board of elections. It was discovered that the board had successfully approved the use of 130 different school IDs for the 2024 election, but before the approval, many controversies were in the conversation.
In one of the approvals made earlier in the year, the Board of Elections in August approved the use of UNC-Chapel Hill’s digital student ID, which is the primary form of campus ID for students and is accessible using a mobile device. After the approval, the Republican National Committee and state GOP filed suit, arguing that, under North Carolina’s voter ID law, only physical ID cards are permitted.
In a ruling to the suit the trial court judge uled that the digital IDs met voter ID requirements, the state court of appeals overruled the trial courts’ decision. The ruling from the higher court has led to the to a scramble by UNC-Chapel Hill administrators and student advocacy groups to ensure that students who do not have another acceptable form of voter ID are able to obtain a physical student ID card free of charge.
Another decision that was taken was the restriction of voting by mail which was aimed at implementing the use of voter ID, the restrictions were placed by the North Carolina’s Republican Legislature. The rule states that the individuals who would be voting by mail are requested to submit a photocopy of their ID or a form claiming a voter ID exception along with their ballot. The new process that has been added has made it difficult for voters to submit their mail ballot successfully.
The new way has changed over and has noted that mail ballots must be received by the close of voting on Election Day to be counted. Previously, a voter could mail a ballot by Election Day and have it counted as long as it was received at the county board elections within three days after Election Day.
In the westernmost third of North Carolina, the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene has created significant hurdles to voting. Helene’s winds and floods destroyed hundreds of homes, displaced thousands and left tens of thousands more still without electricity or running water.
It was noted that despite the storm wake, the Republican-led Legislature, Democratic majority state board of elections and election administrators across the affected region have come together to conveniently provide voters and local election administrators the resources and flexibility to cast their ballots this fall.
Because of this quick response, 76 of the originally planned 80 early voting sites across the region opened at the start of early voting last week. Additionally, voters in the affected counties can return vote-by-mail ballots at any board of elections office or early voting site in the state. Under an existing carveout in North Carolina’s voter ID law, voters who cannot provide a photo ID because of the natural disaster are excused from presenting a photo ID provided they complete the simple exception form.
Despite yearslong Republican voter suppression efforts and the worst natural disaster in state history, there is also cause for optimism. Early voting totals are far outpacing 2020 numbers, and most voters across the state vote without issue.
In the aftermath of Helene, Republicans and Democrats have come together to ensure that voters across the state can safely and conveniently cast a ballot. Perhaps most significantly, the experienced election administrators in North Carolina’s state and county board of elections are uniformly dedicated to ensuring that every qualified voter can cast a vote and that every vote is counted in a suitable and secure process.
