A flurry of efforts by Republican state legislators to alter voting procedures has been viewed by some as an assault on voting rights in the state.
Several pieces of voting legislation have passed one chamber of the N.C. General Assembly and are being deliberated in committees. The bills would ban straight-party ticket voting on ballots, shorten the early voting period by one week and require a form of state-issued photo identification at polling places.
The voter ID bill, also known as “Restore Confidence in Government,” has received the most criticism from voting rights advocacy groups.
The groups say the bill will inhibit low-income, minority and elderly residents that are more likely to lack driver’s licenses from voting. A report by the state’s Fiscal Research Division found there are 885,537 registered voters without valid driver’s licenses or non-operators ID cards.
Republican sponsors of the bill say the ID requirement is a necessary measure to deter voter fraud. Adam Sotak, organizing director for Democracy North Carolina, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for civic engagement, said the claim by Republican legislators is unsubstantiated.
“I’m still waiting for them to show me some proof on this widespread voter fraud,” he said. “The facts tell us that it’s extremely rare in N.C. You’re more likely to be struck by lightning.”
But Susan Myrick, an elections analyst at the John W. Pope Civitas Institute, a conservative policy organization in the state, said voter fraud is not limited to cases that are reported.
“Fraud is supposed to be secretive,” she said. “Nobody really knows if there is voter impersonation fraud primarily because there are no specific rules against it.”
Critics of the Republican-backed bill also say it is a thinly-veiled measure to ensure a Republican presidential candidate earns the state’s electoral votes in the 2012 election. President Barack Obama won the state by less than 15,000 votes in 2008.
