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State law does not prevent UNC-Chapel Hill students from using their university-issued mobile identification cards as voter ID, a Wake County judge ruled Thursday.
State and national Republicans sued the state Board of Elections over its party-line approval of UNC-Chapel Hill’s mobileOne cards as acceptable identification for use at the polls.
UNC-Chapel Hill issues the mobile cards to students, faculty, and staff. Once the cards are added to a cell phone, they can be used to unlock doors, buy food, and get into parking lots. The university added expiration dates to the cards this year, a requirement for most voter photo identification documents. The state elections board voted 3-2 along party lines to approve their use as voter ID.
The Republican National Committee and the state Republican Party sued to prevent their use for voting. Their lawsuit said the state voter ID law requires use of physical cards, not digital IDs.
Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory disagreed.
“Where does it say they can’t use these cards? It doesn’t,” Gregory said.
Students didn’t enroll in UNC to commit voter fraud, he said. It would be up to another court to tell them they can’t vote.
“If I’m wrong, that’s why we have the appellate courts,” Gregory said.
RNC lawyer Ellis Boyle said he didn’t know if Republicans will appeal.
“It’s hard to know,” he said. “I haven’t spoken to my clients.”
Time for appeals is running short. Counties begin mailing absentee ballots Friday and in-person early voting begins Oct. 17.
Most people who vote use their driver’s license as ID, but other forms of identification are allowed by law.
The state Board of Elections has approved more than 100 institutional ID cards issued by local governments and public and private schools as acceptable forms of photo ID.
UNC’s mobile card was the first digital ID the board approved.
The law lists a variety of cards that can be used, said Mary Carla Babb, a special deputy Attorney General representing the State Board of Elections. It does not say they all have to be “tangible, handheld cards,” she said.
UNC-Chapel Hill no longer automatically issues physical cards to new students. But, just this week, the school posted on a website that it would provide physical cards without the chip technology at no cost to people who needed them for ID.
Republicans have sued the state Board of Elections four times over the space of a few weeks.
The Democratic National Committee joined the mobile ID lawsuit to defend their use.
Jim Phillips, a lawyer representing the DNC, said the Republican lawsuits have “targeted groups they don’t want to go to the polls.”
The lawsuits aim to confuse voters and “raise the specter that hordes of non-citizens are going to cast ballots in North Carolina this year,” he said.
Voters have already registered using legally required documents, Phillips said, and the mobile cards are solely for identification.