“Another Win for N.C. Voters” as Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Declines to Review Decision Upholding Voter ID

Raleigh, N.C. – State House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) said a decision this week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit not to review a three-judge panel’s ruling upholding North Carolina’s voter ID law was “another win” for the state’s voters.

The three-judge panel’s ruling had reversed a district court order blocking North Carolina’s voter ID law. That Fourth Circuit panel held that “the district court’s opinion devotes little analysis” to its ruling, and that “we reverse because of the fundamental legal errors that permeate the opinion.”
 
The three-judge panel included judges appointed by both Presidents Trump and Obama. The plaintiffs appealed to seek a full ‘en banc’ review from the Fourth Circuit judges, but instead the court handed another win to North Carolina voters who approved a proposed constitutional amendment on voter ID in 2018.
 
“This is another win for North Carolina voters in federal court,” Moore said Tuesday, “and our commonsense voter ID requirement must be implemented for the next election cycle in our state.”
 
“As an original sponsor of North Carolina’s voter ID constitutional amendment in 2018, I am working with my colleagues in General Assembly leadership to protect this vital election integrity measure that the people approved in a ballot referendum. As the 2020 elections demonstrated, voting in person with a photo ID is the best way to ensure the integrity of our elections.”
 
A strong majority of states have a voter ID law. North Carolina’s voter ID law is non-strict – any qualified voter can attest to a reasonable impediment to obtaining a qualifying ID and still cast a ballot.
 
North Carolina’s voter ID law also accommodates religious objectors, provides for free government-issued IDs and accepts drivers’ licenses, passports, military and veteran IDs, student IDs, voter ID cards, as well as state and local government IDs. Drivers’ licenses from other states would even qualify in some circumstances.
 
North Carolina’s law applies to both absentee and in-person voting. A state court injunction on the voter ID law remains in place despite the federal order being lifted, and further litigation is expected in both forums this spring.