Some county boards of election violated “the text and spirit” of the voter ID law when they baselessly questioned the reasons voters didn’t have photo identification last November, three voting rights groups told the State Board of Election in a letter. 

The Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Common Cause North Carolina, and Democracy North Carolina want the State Board of Elections to make it clear what local boards can and cannot do when they’re considering accepting ballots from people who vote without photo ID.  

State Board of Elections officials spoke to reporters on Thursday, a day ahead of the first batch of mail-in ballots for the March 5 primary going out to voters who asked for one. The deadline to request an absentee ballot for the primary is February 27.

At the news conference, State Board of Elections attorney Paul Cox said the letter from the voting rights groups is one of many comments the board has received on voter ID rules. The board is slated to vote on permanent rules later this year, he said. One of the items they’re considering is how to make certain of uniformity across counties in the handling of photo ID issues. 

“That is certainly an item that is front of mind for the State Board,” he said. 

For the first time in years, voters were asked for valid photo identification when they went to vote last year. Voters who cast mail-in ballots were asked to send in copies of their IDs. 

One of the options for people who don’t have IDs is to fill out an exception form with the reason they don’t have one when casting a provisional ballot. 

Voter advocacy groups monitored how 35 county elections boards handled ballots with exception forms and found wide variations. 

Most voters cast ballots last year without problems. According to information the state board provided, 484 people cast provisional ballots in the November elections for reasons related to photo ID. That’s about one-tenth of 1% of the total vote. Of the 484, 228 ballots were not counted. Forty-three were not counted because county boards of election rejected ID exception forms. 

Before accepting a handful of ballots with exception forms,  the Guilford County Board of Elections wrote voters accusatory letters claiming they had lied about the reasons they didn’t have ID and telling them they could come to a hearing. One of those letters went to a voter with Huntington’s disease who uses a wheelchair, NC Newsline reported. 

The letter from the voter groups said election boards in Guilford, Mecklenburg, and Brunswick violated the State Board’s instructions not to second-guess the reasonableness of voters’ reasons for not having identification. 

At the statewide elections conference in a few weeks, county elections board members and local election workers will again talk about the legal requirements for county board review of photo ID, Cox said.

The municipal elections offered the chance to see if counties understood the State Board’s guidance, Brinson Bell said. 

“We just try to work on continuous improvement and try to serve the voters,” she said.

People who vote absentee must provide a copy of their photo identification with their returned ballot, or include a form saying why they could not provide a copy. And new this year is the deadline for returning absentee ballots.

A law passed last year ended the three-day grace period for absentee ballot returns, so mailed ballots must arrive at county board offices by 7:30 pm on election day. 

County boards of election provide free IDs that can be used for voting. 

Local boards have been stepping up their voter outreach efforts.

The Wake County Board of Elections has scheduled its second photo ID event for this Saturday. The Durham County Board of Elections is touring county libraries this year, with appearances scheduled through July.