By L.A. Williams
Christian Action League
March 29, 2024
Roughly 1.8 million voters, just under a quarter of those registered in North Carolina, cast ballots in the March 5 primary. Many will have a chance to vote again in May during the second primary. And all are urged to head to the polls in November.
The March vote was the first presidential election since North Carolina recently joined 35 other states that ask voters to show an ID. It was also the first since the GOP-led legislature tightened rules around absentee ballots, eliminating the three-day grace period after Election Day for the ballots to be turned in.
Gov. Roy Cooper and other Democrats had criticized the changes, calling them attacks on voting rights. But supporters told the Associated Press that they were “commonsense reforms that restore faith in our elections.”
“Ensuring the integrity of our elections must be a high priority of our lawmakers, especially as the confidence level of voters has eroded in recent years,” says the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League. “Bringing a photo ID to the polls is not burdensome, especially since such a wide variety of IDs are accepted, and the Board of Elections offers free IDs ahead of Election Day.”
According to the March 19 Raleigh News & Observer, very few voters showed up to vote without an ID. Those who did were allowed to cast a provisional ballot, which was counted if they brought a photo ID to their county Board of Elections office by canvass day. They also had an opportunity to fill out a form claiming an exception to the new law.
According to the state Board of Elections, just 473 ballots were rejected because of ID issues. And the vast majority of those resulted from voters who simply failed to show up with an acceptable ID by the canvass. Roughly 60 voters who had filled out ID exception forms had their ballots rejected.
As for rule changes regarding mail-in ballots, the N&O noted that 1,128 ballots came in after the deadline compared to 800 late ballots in the 2020 presidential primary, during which the three-day grace period was in effect. The majority of U.S. states require absentee ballots to be turned in by Election Day.
The new laws designed to bolster election accuracy helped North Carolina eke out a passing grade on the Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard. The state was ranked 18th in the nation with a grade of 70. No state earned a 100.
The Scorecard rates states based on whether they have implemented 47 best-practice recommendations to guarantee fair elections. The Foundation says two things all states should do are to require photo IDs to vote, whether in person or via an absentee ballot, and to ensure that election officials maintain current, accurate voter rolls.
North Carolina earned maximum points on the scorecard for its handling of same-day and automatic voter registrations, vote harvesting/tracking restrictions, vote counting practices and on access of election observers. Its new voter ID requirement earned 18 of 20 possible points, but the Foundation’s rating showed the state could take more measures to improve the accuracy of its voter registration lists and absentee ballot management.
The State Board of Elections will continue to educate voters regarding the photo ID requirement, deadlines and other rules leading up to May’s second primary, which is essentially a run-off among Republican candidates for lieutenant governor and state auditor, and the November General Election.
The Rev. Creech urged North Carolina residents to pay attention and to check out the state BOE website for answers to questions about upcoming elections.
“Our lawmakers and election officials can only do so much. It’s our responsibility, as individuals, to find out what we need to do to take advantage of the privilege of voting,” he said. “Election integrity is everyone’s job.”