The State Elections Board, in line with party lines, has decided to allow UNC-Chapel Hill students and staff to use digital IDs to vote.
Most people use a photo driver’s license as voter identification, but alternatives such as identity cards issued by local election committees, universities, or state or local governments are also acceptable.
UNC-Chapel Hill is under more than 100 universities, community colleges and government agencies which issue ID cards authorised for voting.
Elections Board staff can approve government and college IDs unless a committee member objects. Then the ID is presented to the committee for a vote. The two Republican committee members questioned whether the voter ID law allows for digital IDs in addition to physical cards.
UNC-Chapel Hill’s Mobile One Cards function as physical ID cards that allow users to enter campus buildings, pay for food, and use parking. Once users load their physical cards onto their phones, the physical cards no longer work.
According to a report by the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education, 92% of UNC-Chapel Hill students were registered to vote in 2020.
Lindsey Wakely, one of the panel’s attorneys, said UNC-Chapel Hill’s mobile ID card meets the law’s requirements for photo IDs. The law does not limit acceptable IDs to printed cards, she said.
Other universities have had their applications to use mobile IDs for voting denied because they did not meet expiration date requirements, said state Elections Commission Director Karen Brinson Bell. Staff recommended the board approve UNC-Chapel Hill’s mobile ID, which has an expiration date.
But Stacy “Four” Eggers IV, a Republican, said a mobile app and an ID card are different. The committee does not have the authority to approve a mobile app, he said.
He warned that the digital IDs could be modified or forwarded as screenshots.
Board Chairman Alan Hirsch said state law is flexible enough to allow printed cards. He compared the digital ID to a digital airline ticket or a credit card in an Apple Wallet.
“Everyone from a certain younger generation lives by it,” Hirsch said. “They don’t carry cards.”
Democrat Siobhan Millen said the university, unlike other universities, had to go to great lengths to add an expiration date to ensure its digital ID card met state requirements.
But Republican Rep. Kevin Lewis said the panel was overstepping the law and engaging in “activist rulemaking.”
The board voted 3-2 to allow digital IDs, with Republicans opposed.
