University of North Carolina students can use the university’s digital ID cards displayed on their smartphones to access sporting events, the dining hall, and now the voting booth.

In a 3-2 party-line vote, the North Carolina State Board of Elections approved the Mobile UNC One Card as an acceptable form of voter ID at its Aug. 20 meeting. While the board accepts about 70 student IDs statewide, this is the first approved digital ID since the voter ID requirement goes into effect in 2023.

Republican board members Stacy Eggers and Kevin Lewis voted against the approval.

“We are being asked here to approve an ID card through a mobile app, and a mobile app is not an ID card,” Eggers said during the meeting.

Democratic members of the panel disagreed, saying the voter ID law was flexible enough to consider a digital card as acceptable as a physical card.

“If a young person uses a credit card to buy groceries through their Apple Wallet on their phone, they’re still using a credit card,” said board member Siobhan Miller. “We would still call it a credit card, so I think the form it’s in doesn’t really matter.”

With just months left until the November election, there isn’t much time to challenge the panel’s decision this election cycle. But the issue isn’t going away, Christopher Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, told Carolina Public Press.

Republicans have made their opposition to digital voter ID clear and may later take legal action or draft legislation to reverse the decision.

“Deaths, taxes and election disputes – those are the three things we know are going to happen in the state of North Carolina,” Cooper said.

“Inheritance taxes and election disputes – those are three things we know are going to happen in the state of North Carolina.” Christopher Cooper, professor of political science at Western Carolina University: “So yes, I think there will be challenges, and should Republicans take control of the state election board through a victory in the gubernatorial election or some other means, I would imagine that this will be one of the first policies they will consider again.”

Debate about access versus security

After the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the state’s voter ID law in 2023, Sloan Duvall, president of the UNC Young Democrats, said the group wants to make voting as accessible as possible for students.

It’s “one less hurdle” for a population that may not have a North Carolina driver’s license that matches their college residence, she said. The UNC Young Democrats have been communicating with the administration and urging the chancellor’s office to advocate for digital voter IDs with the State Board of Elections.

State Senator Mujtaba Mohammed (D-Mecklenburg) told CPP on Monday that the future of voting is about “inclusion, not exclusion.”

“The election should ultimately be about empowering the people, not burdening them with bureaucratic paperwork,” he said. “Whether it’s a physical or digital ID, if it complies with the law, it should be accepted.”

The Mobile UNC One Card contains a student’s photo and an expiration date and is issued only after an enrollment process that requires uploading other identification documents, such as the student’s date of birth and driver’s license or passport.

The digital ID software stores data in a cloud-based center secured by the same system that produces chips in physical IDs, according to the official application form submitted to the state board. It uses the same technology as credit and debit card chips. The only people who can change an ID are employees of the vendor, whose secure data practices have been approved by UNC’s data management and privacy offices.

The law does not mention digital IDs, but it also does not define the term “card” and does not explicitly state that it must be a physical card.

During last week’s board meeting, Republican board member Kevin Lewis said that approving digital IDs — like North Carolina’s digital driver’s licenses recently approved by the General Assembly — should require a clear amendment to the law.

“I have a card in my wallet, not an app on my phone,” Lewis said. “I think this is a kind of activist rulemaking or legislation that goes beyond the law. As the courts have told us time and time again when examining laws, the language of this law does not require interpretation, only compliance.”

A statement from the North Carolina Republican Party said there were “numerous problems” with the digital ID.

“Our chairman has called this the most partisan state election board we have ever seen because their lip service to serious election integrity concerns frustrates everyone who cares about fairness in the conduct of elections,” the statement said.

Duvall said Republicans were “scared.”

“They don’t want young people to vote in North Carolina because the NC GOP has put together the most anti-youth slate of candidates ever,” she said.

Students are passionate about issues like student loans, climate change, gun safety and reproductive rights, and former President Donald Trump does not share their priorities, Duvall said. Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, who is running for governor, “is a candidate who demonizes all kinds of North Carolinians, LGBTQ people and women,” she added.

“The young people will not vote for him.”

Duvall also mentioned Republican U.S. House Representative and candidate for Attorney General Dan Bishop and candidate for Education Secretary Michelle Morrow as people young voters are likely to face at the ballot box.

“Republicans in North Carolina know this,” Duvall said. “So when they see another barrier to young people voting removed, of course they’re going to say, under the guise of election integrity, that this is a bad decision.”

Framing the issue as security, which Republicans typically favor, versus access, which Democrats favor, is a typical battleground in the election campaign, Cooper said.

“Some people would argue that this is a false choice and that you can have both – security and access – but unfortunately from a purely political perspective, that’s often how it works,” he said.

Will the voting decision be challenged based on a digital ID?

While Republicans have not yet announced plans to challenge the Senate’s decision, many believe it is inevitable.

State Senator Warren Daniel (R-Burke), one of the main sponsors of the voter ID law, said in a statement to CPP that digital IDs were “not readily available” in 2018, when the law was first passed.

“Whether digital IDs are secure enough to be considered a valid form of voter ID is a decision for the legislature, not three unelected, partisan bureaucrats,” Daniel said.

“The State Election Board continues to disregard election security, exceed its authority and circumvent the legislative process. The board’s decision this week is just the latest example of why we need a truly bipartisan Election Board.”

The attempt by the Republican majority in the House to change the composition of the State Election Commission to ensure an even split between the parties and to strip the governor of his appointment power is the subject of ongoing legal proceedings.

Senator Mohammed said he would not be surprised if the General Assembly called lawmakers back into session to amend the voter ID law and resolve the issue. He said he has worked with Republicans on election legislation before and will do so again.

“I am happy to debate with the other side of the aisle because I fundamentally believe in preserving and protecting access to the vote,” he said.

“I don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat, young, old, black, white or whatever. If you’re an American and a U.S. citizen, you have the right to vote.”

Republicans could also sue the State Board of Elections over the decision, but Cooper said that’s less likely. He said UNC’s digital ID is just the beginning of a much longer debate over voter ID.

“It’s going to add fuel to the fire because it’s another example of the disagreement between the two major parties about how we conduct elections,” Cooper said. “But at the end of the day, it’s a relatively small number of people who are going to offer this ID as their only ID.”