North Carolina election board faces 7th lawsuit in 52 days

(The Center Square) – North Carolina’s State Board of Elections says a mobile phone identification is acceptable for the state’s voter ID law.

The state and national Republican organizations on Thursday in court said it is not.

Seven times in 52 days, the five-member bipartisan state authority and its executive director who manage the elections have been sued. Playing offense as plaintiffs for the fourth time are the North Carolina Republican Party and the Republican National Convention, which is led by the former head of the state party.

Three weeks ago, the state board by 3-2 approved the Mobile UNC One Card that is used on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It’s voluntary there for students and staff with Apple phones.

State law, says plaintiffs , only allows ID in physical form. Options include military or veterans photo ID card issued by the U.S. government; ID card with photo issued by the U.S. or North Carolina government for a public assistance program; tribal enrollment card with photo issued by a tribe recognized by the state or federal government, which include the Cherokee-Eastern Band, Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbee, Meherrin, Occaneechi-Saponi, Sappony and Waccamaw Siouan.

Additionally, there are 95 entities with approved student or government-employee photo IDs, or both.

According to the lawsuit, the board was in error to “expand the circumstances of what is an acceptable student identification card, beyond a tangible, physical item, to something only found on a computer system.”

Creating digital items, including through use of artificial intelligence, has been a subject of many polls this election cycle. A national poll from Elon University released in May said more than 3 in 4 Americans fear abuses of artificial intelligence will affect the 2024 presidential election, and many are not confident they can detect faked photos, videos or audio.

Defendants are the board as a whole, each member in their board capacity, and Bell. The board includes Democrats Alan Hirsch, its chairman, Jeff Carmon and Siobhan Millen; and Republicans Stacy Eggers and Kevin Lewis.

Since July 22, the state board has been litigated because of decisions related to ballot access involving the Justice For All Party, and the We The People Party; voter roll maintenance twice; freedom of speech involving John F. Kennedy Jr.; and a memo of instruction to county boards of elections in conflict with absentee by mail ballot state laws.