Update: NC board of elections finishes holding hearings on how best to enforce voter ID law

Early voting is underway as of Thursday, Oct. 20. Find out when and where you can early vote in Buncombe County.

Update 6/15: The canary coalition recorded the June 11th Jackson county input meeting. The group has the video of the proceedings publicly available. Today is the final day for public input on the proposed rules for accepting voter identification at polling places.  Submit comments via email to rules@ncsbe.gov

Lines are expected to lengthen at the polls in 2016 as election workers add another step to the voting process.  By law, officials will have to confirm voters identities by checking an unexpired, approved ID to determine if such things as whether voters bear a “reasonable resemblance” to their IDs. The State Board of Elections has crafted a proposed set of rules for election workers to evaluate potentially subjective parts of the new law. The SBOE is now holding hearings to get input from the public on the proposed rules.

Currently, the proposed rules include provisions that differences on an ID caused by a medical condition, hairstyles or weight, will not prohibit voting. The proposed rules also protect people who registered to vote using names slightly different from the name on their IDs by allowing “substantially equivalent” names to those on the voter roles. Also, under the proposed rules, the address on the ID and the voter registration do not have to match. The rules additionally provide a procedure for IDs that are contested by an election worker.

All of these rules are subject to change after input from the public at hearings across the state this month.

Democracy NC is leading an effort to maximize attendance at the hearings and will hold a “pre-hearing prep meeting” at the Democracy NC office at 20 Battery Park at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 8, for those interested in traveling to one of regional meetings.

The first of nine such hearings was held Wednesday June 3 in Raleigh. The final one will be in Tarboro, June 15.

Hearings scheduled for Western NC are:

Boone June 10, 5-7 p.m. — Watauga County Administration Building, Board of Commissioners meeting room. 814 West King St.

Sylva, June 11, 5-7 p.m. — Jackson County Board of Elections Office. 876 Skyland Dr., Suite 1

Public comments will be accepted by the NC State Board of Elections until June 15. Submit comments via email to rules@ncsbe.gov, or by mail to P.O. Box 27255, Raleigh, NC 27611 to the attention of Rule-Making Coordinator.

For assistance obtaining a free ID from the DMV, contact the SBOE voter-outreach team by phone at 866-522-4723 or email at voteroutreach.sboe@ncsbe.gov.

NC GOP has also announced it will offer free rides to anyone in need of a valid photo ID to vote. Request a free ride by going to ncgop.org/ride and filling out the form. A NCGOP volunteer in each region will schedule a free ride.

Originally published 6/6/15

 

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About Able Allen
Able studied political science and history at Warren Wilson College. He enjoys travel, dance, games, theater, blacksmithing and the great outdoors. Follow me @AbleLAllen

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13 thoughts on “Update: NC board of elections finishes holding hearings on how best to enforce voter ID law

  1. June 4, 2015 (Raleigh) — Early last night, the State Board of Elections kicked off their first of nine public hearings on implementation rules for North Carolina’s voter ID law, but it quickly devolved into a coordinated ruckus by “progressive” mobs, lying in wait, perhaps, in more ways than one. To be fair, some speakers did garnish their remarks with a few responsible comments, but the occasion quickly devolved into a blunt show of force exercise, orchestrated by the Z. Smith Reynolds-backed, Democracy NC and their Blueprint buddies at League of Women Voters and the NAACP. (For casual readers, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation functions as the George Soros of North Carolina politics.)
    http://voterintegrityproject.com/raleigh-ruckus/

  2. Tim Peck: Progressive Mobs”?? You mean like the ones in Florida aggressively going after those that wanted to do a fair and accurate voter re-count in the Gore/Bush elections in 2000? You know, the one where Bush didn’t have the votes to win the Presidency, and where the Supreme Court gave him the win?

    That one?

    Hypocrisy is thy middle name. The entire modern world is watching, and laughing at us all.

    • GoodLord

      Bush, (that creep) won the electoral ballot, as much as I hate to say it, and it’s a bitter pill to swallow, but yes, you can win the electoral votes and not win the popular vote. Kids learn this in 6th grade.

      • Jim

        Really? You mean like the teacher that said people would do jail time for speaking out against Obama? Or our own little Vance school that had the little tikes sing the song about Obama? Straight out of the Little Red Book of commies if you ask me. This is public schools today and why Americans are ignorant of civics and their rights. And a huge reason why charter and private schools are seen as a threat to the public system.

        http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/05/20/n-c-teacher-tells-student-he-could-be-arrested-for-talking-badly-about-obama/

        • RedHotPoker

          Yes, Jim the old adage ‘get YOUR children OUT of government screwls as fast as you can’ comes to mind…
          government screwls are progressive government dependence indoctrination centers and they have now dumbed
          down 3-4 generations since 1976…

    • ‘ You mean like the ones in Florida ”

      No. I think the writer means like the one at the BlueprintNC astroturfed voter ID hearings.

    • ‘ You mean like the ones in Florida ”

      No. I think the writer means like the ones at the BlueprintNC astroturfed voter ID hearings.

  3. Gary L.

    Which is more racist? Requiring a person to actually present reasonable proof that they are who they say they are, or that minorities are less capable of acquiring a free voter ID than non-minorities? So to those who think voter ID laws are racist I say, “look in the mirror”.

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