None of North Carolina’s public universities have currently completed required paperwork to permit their students to use campus IDs at the polls, which would make it difficult for students to use their college IDs as the required photo ID needed to vote.
A NC Board of Elections spokesman said he did not believe any of the state’s 58 community colleges or private institutions had completed the required paperwork either.
The deadline to submit the paperwork is only two weeks away, though legislation was recently implemented to delay that until September, according to WRAL.com.
House Rules Committee chairman David Lewis, said the legislature’s “commitment to having college students vote is unwavering.” Allowing NC college students to use their college IDs to vote was a huge point of discussion during last year’s voter ID fight at the statehouse.
A spokesman for the North Carolina Community College System noted that administrators have given all 58 of their campuses information from the state board regarding how to submit the paperwork and even hosted a webinar to answer any questions about voter ID. The decision to sign off on ID compliance “rests locally with each college,” spokesman Brian Long said.
“Our institution places enormous value on the civic engagement of our faculty, staff and students,” Appalachian State University Chancellor Sheri Everts said in a statement. “Our focus during this process is and will continue to be on learning everything we can about this new law and the ongoing education of our students and the greater Appalachian community. We will work closely with the county and state boards of elections to be certain we educate and enable our students to assert their legal right to vote.”
The State Board of Elections are required to sign off on IDs to be used in the 2019 and 2020 elections by March 15, the law says. Applications from the institutions are currently due by March 13.