Sydney Meeks, NextGen regional organizing director, and Logan Parke, Chapel Hill field organizer, talk to a UNC-CH student during a National Voter Registration Day campus visit. (Photo: Lynn Bonner)
There’s a legal fight going on over whether UNC Chapel-Hill digital IDs that live on student, staff and faculty phones are legitimate IDs that can be used for voting. Democrats say they are. Republicans say they aren’t.
The North Carolina Republican Party and the Republican National Committee are suing to prevent the campus digital IDs from being accepted as valid voter photo identification. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday. Republicans are asking the court to declare that digital IDs can’t be used at polling places.
The university this year issued only digital versions of the ID, called the mobileOne card, UNC-Chapel Hill students said this week. Depending on what the courts decide, students there may have to take an extra step to obtain college IDs they can use to vote.
A common, all-purpose tool
The all-purpose digital cards, which are used to unlock doors, pay for food, and get into parking lots, already have user photos. UNC-Chapel Hill added an expiration date to the mobile ID, a detail the state voter ID law requires of school identification cards. That’s one of the reasons the three Democrats on the state Board of Elections voted to okay the campus digital ID for use at the polls.
Use of digital wallets is widespread, especially among younger people, Democrats argued. They pointed to a law the legislature passed this year allowing for digital drivers licenses to be issued starting July 1, 2025 as an example of the state endorsing digital versions of government documents. The digital licenses would “be the legal equivalent of a valid license,” according to the law.
The state Board of Elections has approved more than 100 institutional identification cards issued by local governments and public and private schools for students and employees to use at the polls. The Board’s party-line vote last month made UNC-Chapel Hill’s digital IDs the first non-physical school photo IDs eligible for use.
A partisan divide
Republicans on the Board opposed allowing the cards over concerns about security. Could screenshots be shared, they wondered. And Republican Board members contended that state law clearly requires presentation of a physical card in order to vote. The Republican lawsuit expands on that argument.
Court papers filed on behalf of the Affirmative Action Coalition at UNC, a group that wants to join the case as an intervenor to defend using the digital cards, said they are now the default campus ID. Students are no longer automatically issued physical cards.
College students who have moved away from home have more decisions to make on where to vote than many other voters. They have to decide whether to register using their college address or their parents’ home address.
Students who don’t intend to return home after graduation may register in the county where they live while in school, according to the state Board of Elections. Students who don’t know where they will be after college can register at their school address or at their former home.
Another voting complication
Whether or not UNC-Chapel Hill students can use their digital IDs tosses in another complication as the state’s early voting period nears.
The youth voting organization NextGen America advises students to make a plan to vote, have a back-up plan, and on what to do if they get turned away, said Brennan Steele, the organization’s state director. NextGen fanned out to college campuses across the state Tuesday for National Voter Registration Day.
“If we can just use student ID across the board, fantastic,” Steele said. “But, let’s be realistic here, there’s going to be a lot of issues on campus with people not knowing the right regulations about what IDs they can use and not knowing how they can vote on campus.”
UNC-Chapel Hill did not respond this week to emailed questions about the digital IDs, including whether the school would provide alternatives for people who do not have physical cards.
However, the school appears to be attempting to respond to the uncertainty surrounding digital IDs. In a Tuesday update on mobile IDs, a university website said that students, faculty or staff who need a physical card for identification can obtain a one that doesn’t have the chip technology at no cost.
UNC senior Sam Hiner, executive director and co-founder of the Young People’s Alliance, said universities have moved to digital cards, so adapting to them will be critical. Voter access is a focus of the Young People’s Alliance.
First-year students don’t receive physical cards anymore, he said. In fact, he communicated one student on Saturday who tried to get a physical card and was told “they don’t do that anymore.”
Hiner had not heard Wednesday morning about the offer of free physical cards.
“It’s probably in direct response to this, I would imagine,” he said.
The chance to obtain a physical campus ID might come as welcome news to Erin Kim, a first-year UNC Chapel-Hill student who puzzled over what photo identification she could use to vote if her oneCard isn’t accepted.
Kim stopped by the NextGen voter registration table on Tuesday to ask about working with the group. She told organizers she is interested in voter empowerment.
“I’ve been telling all my friends to early vote,” she said.
A successful challenge to the digital IDs would disadvantage new students and future students, she said in an interview.
Emma Frost, a junior, usually uses the digital card on her phone but still has a physical card.
“I thought it still might have some purpose,” she said. In any case, “It’s a fun piece of UNC memorabilia.”
Benjamin Cowen, a first-year student from Mooresville, said the mobile ID security features make it more secure than a physical ID.
“It should be a little bit easier to vote, especially for college students,” he said. “It kind of feels like college students are being suppressed.”