By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
As over 2.7 million North Carolinians were casting their early votes across North Carolina last week, lawyers for the NC NAACP appeared before the NC Court of Appeals stating their case was to why the state’s oldest civil rights organization still believes the voter ID law is unconstitutional and discriminatory.
Supporters of the law say it is not, but is necessary to stop voter fraud.
The NC NAACP appealed a decision by a federal judge earlier this year that ruled against its lawsuit to end the requirement for North Carolina voters to display official photo identification at the polls, which has been in effect since 2023. Despite that ruling, the NC NAACP still believes African-American and other voters of color, along with many of the elderly and some young people, are less likely to have official photo identification like a driver’s licenses, thus making the law discriminatory.
The NC NAACP lawsuit that is being appealed also challenged the 2018 constitutional amendment the voter ID law is based on, maintaining that the North Carolina General Assembly which ratified it in 2018 was the result of racial gerrymandering, which is illegal.
Lawyers for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is representing the NC NAACP, told the state three-judge appellate panel that it wants its evidence against the legality of the voter ID law to be heard, and to have their day in court.
Meanwhile, voters considered another constitutional amendment on the 2026 midterm election ballot that would require voter photo identification for all voters, even those using mail-in ballots, which is not the case now. If passed, that amendment would become part of the state constitution.
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