The N.C. Court of Appeals has blocked elections officials from accepting digital IDs used by students and employees at UNC-Chapel Hill as a valid form of voter ID.
In a ruling issued Friday, the Court of Appeals granted a temporary injunction blocking the State Board of Elections from allowing UNC’s “One Card” or any other “image of a photo ID, either as a photocopy or a photo on a mobile device” as outlined in a previous board memo, as an acceptable form of photo ID under the state’s voter ID law.
The One Card is a form of student identification available through a mobile app on iPhones and Apples Watches that allows students to access campus buildings and parking lots, make purchases, and enter sporting events.
Elections officials already approved more than 100 student and public employee IDs as valid forms of voter ID, but in August the Democratic majority on the Board of Elections voted to approve UNC’s One Card , marking the first time a digital ID would have been allowed for voting.
The board memo quoted in the appeals court’s ruling was sent last year by Karen Brinson Bell, the elections board’s executive director. The memo stated, “an image of a photo ID, either as a photocopy or a photo on a mobile device, is not one of the permitted forms of photo ID when voting in person.”
When the board approved UNC’s One Card last month, however, Brinson Bell said UNC’s digital ID met all state requirements for voter ID. It was “not merely a copy or a photocopy,” but rather an “issued (ID) with expiration dates displayed,” she said.
UNC previously required students and employees who wanted a physical card instead of the One Card to pay a small fee, but the school recently said it would provide physical cards for free to anyone who wanted it for voting, the Associated Press reported .
Some voting rights advocates who opposed the GOP’s lawsuit said UNC’s digital IDs were as reliable and secure as physical IDs, and that blocking their use would create confusion among tens of thousands of students who use One Cards everyday.
Jeff Loperfido, chief counsel for voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said earlier this week a sudden reversal on the digital IDs “would upend the voting plans of an entire community and risk silencing their voices.”
The ruling by the Court of Appeals is a victory for Republicans, who sued the elections board earlier this month for approving UNC’s digital ID, and appealed a decision last week by Wake County Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory, who denied the GOP’s request for a temporary restraining order and refused to block the IDs from being used.
In their lawsuit, the Republican National Committee and N.C. Republican Party argued the digital ID doesn’t qualify under the requirements laid out in state law .
Republicans said digital IDs shouldn’t be allowed because they could be easier to alter, the screens could be hard to see, and network or hardware problems could prevent the ID from being used.
In a post on social media , N.C. GOP Chairman Jason Simmons said the ruling “is a win for the people of North Carolina and for the rule of law.”
“When the NC State Board of Elections exceeds their statutory authority, we will use every available option to ensure elections in this state are safe,” Simmons said.
Patrick Gannon, a spokesperson for the elections board, said the board did not have any comment on Friday’s ruling.
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