The Price of Bipartisanship

VIP Critique of NC Voter ID Version 1.0

Nov 28, 2019, RALEIGH — Just as the academic world has suffered the ravages of grade inflation, the current HB 1107 & SB 824 earn a passing score. But that’s where it gets funny . . . as in the Left, laughing as they find an excuse to sue the legislature . . . even though they’ve gotten everything they want.

Up front, yay! The latest version has deleted the curbside voter loophole. That was the convoluted trickery that somebody snuck into HB 589 that exempted the voter ID law for anybody voting curbside. It’s now gone. Yay!

Federally Mandated Fake IDs

Now, don’t get mad at the Legislature for this one, but the free voter ID cards they will issue to any and all takers is nothing more than window dressing. By offering these, the ID cards, the Left has a harder time getting a Democrat federal judge to veto the law. The fact that these fake ID cards only require a piece of paper with the voter’s name and address on it (documented both here and here in 2017), they’re not a long-term solution.

At best, these IDs should trigger government action to help the voter get a real ID that would be allowed for things like getting a welfare check, buying a gun, or visiting a federal building to visit their Congressman. At worse, they empower voter impersonators with the illusion of legality.

Issuing such ID cards should be publicly documented such that election integrity activists can go confirm whether or not that voter really exists at the claimed registration address. Otherwise, we’ve lost control of elections and are no longer a constitutional republic . . . and that’s grounds for legal action. (See US Constitution, Article 4, Section 4.)

Flooding the Zone

While yesterday’s drafts would merit a “strict” rating by elite groups like the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), they grade on a curve. Cheaters don’t. NCSL’s habit of calling fraud-friendly voter ID

states “strict,” they try to limit the effectiveness of states seeking to protect the integrity of their elections.

Thus, NCSL rated Virginia as “strict” and we’ve already documented how fraud-friendly their voter ID laws are. If you don’t feel like clicking that link, the short story is that the sheer number of picture ID cards allowed in Virginia overwhelms the system.

When busy poll workers are faced with thousands of options, they throw up their hands and just quit worrying about any poorly produced fake IDs in the mix.

Unforced Errors

It also allows lots of ID cards that would only be held by people who already have either a state-issued ID card or a driver’s license.

The Left did this by complaining incessantly about the Legislature not allowing college ID cards. But here’s a fun fact: Both the ACT and the SAT require test takers to present a state-issued ID card in order to sit for the exam. They know your big brother or sister, who did great in math, could take the exam for you. Why do we need to allow a second ID card for people who, by definition, already have one of the preferred types of ID?

The Legislature’s second unforced ID error involves government employee ID cards. C’mon! Unless the employee is an illegal immigrant working in the kitchen, anybody who has a government job will also have a state-issued ID card or driver’s license.

But setting aside the illegal immigrant question, how does a poll worker authenticate any employee ID card from any city, county, state, or charter school in existence under the sky? Oh sure. The law lists all sorts of conditions for those cards to be used, but let’s refer back to the busy poll workers. They’re not going to care when the lines are out the door and it’s getting late.

So, in addition to the college and employee ID cards being redundant, they create more confusion in the polling place and increase the likelihood that fake employee ID cards will enter the mix. For example, how would a Dare County election worker respond to a Handy Soil and Water District employee ID card?

What’s the Answer?

Here’s a modest proposal: Stick to the same ID cards we adopted in HB 589. The Left will sue you and shame you in the media, but in the end, the Supreme Court of the United States has already approved such shortlists.

Anything else invites trouble.