UNC-Chapel Hill is one of many colleges and universities with school-issued photo IDs recognized by the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

However, this year UNC-Chapel Hill officials also requested permission to allow students and staff to use digital photo IDs (so-called One Cards) stored in their Apple Wallets.

The non-partisan electoral committee voted 3-2 in favor of this motion.

The two Republicans on the panel objected because the language of the bill repeatedly referred to “identity cards,” which they said meant physical cards and not digital IDs.

“We’re being asked to approve an ID in a mobile app,” said board member Stacy Eggers, an attorney. “And a mobile app is not an ID.”

However, Siobhan Millen, a retired lawyer and one of three Democrats on the five-member panel, accused Eggers of being “a little formalistic.”

“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,” Millen countered. “We would still call it a credit card.”

A staff attorney told the panel that UNC-Chapel Hill’s digital ID card meets all legal criteria for use as a voter ID, including having an expiration date.