Via: Democracy Docket:
Lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee (RNC) and North Carolina Republican Party (NC GOP) challenging the North Carolina State Board of Elections’ (NCSBE) approval of a digital form of in-person voter identification for students and employees of the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. The Republican plaintiffs argue that state law as well as the NCSBE’s own guidance prohibits voters from using an image of a photo ID on a mobile device when casting a ballot at the polls.
North Carolina law outlines a finite number of acceptable forms of photo ID for voting, and the complaint alleges that all approved forms of identification must be a “physical, tangible item that can be held in a person’s hands and inspected.” According to the lawsuit, the NCSBE acted outside of its authority and defied state law in approving the UNC digital ID — known as the UNC mobile One Card — since it is not a physical card, and instead exists on a computer system. The plaintiffs further allege that the NCSBE’s expansion of photo ID options could “allow hundreds or thousands of ineligible voters to vote in the upcoming…election and beyond.” The RNC and NC GOP ask the court to prohibit the use of the UNC digital ID for the Nov. 5, 2024 general election and to permanently prevent the NCSBE from allowing non-physical forms of ID.
The University of North Carolina is hotbed of potential Kamala Harris votes in a critical battleground state.
The Harris campaign has caught fire, so Trump’s dream of having a low turnout election where his MAGA base alone would be enough to carry him to victory. Since voters appear willing and ready to turn out for Harris, the Republican plan has shifted to blocking the ability of potential Harris voters to vote in swing states.
If the digital student ID is considered an accepted form of ID by the state of North Carolina, then the Trump argument involving a fantasy of hundreds of thousands of ineligible voters voting is irrelevant.
These sorts of lawsuits are going to pop up in every battleground state, because Donald Trump doesn’t attract new voters, and if the students at UNC prevail and Harris wins the state, the ex-president will claim that North Carolina was stolen from him.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association