Mass shaming by Facebook users and the media (including the INDY) has forced the N.C. DMV to give eighty-six-year-old Reba Bowser the photo ID she needs to vote in the March primary — and was initially denied.

On Friday, contrite officials from the DMV visited Bowser at her home.

From Asheville Citizen-Times:



Sure, Reba Miller Bowser will get to vote in the March 15 North Carolina presidential-election primary.

But that’s only because the rejection of the 86-year-old Asheville resident’s attempt earlier this week to obtain a photo ID has gained statewide attention, said her son, Ed Bowser.

“Yes, the (North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles) is bending over backwards in my mother’s individual situation, but if the DMV hadn’t been called to task by the media and there hadn’t been so much outrage and concern, would they be doing it?” Bowser asked.



Bowser’s attempt at getting the ID was unsuccessful, despite the fact she brought ample proof that she is who she says she is to the Asheville DMV office she visited with her son on Feb. 8.

It’s all because she couldn’t prove, to the satisfaction of the DMV, that she changed her “maiden name” to her middle name when she got married in Pennsylvania in 1950.

Now the problem has been “fixed” in Reba’s case, but her family worries about others who may face a similar situation.

More, from ACT:



“If the [Voter ID] law has all these loopholes, why have it at all?” said [Ed] Bowser, who lives in Asheville with his wife, Amy Knisley, 51.

“If things were that ambiguous in our situation, what’s going to happen at the polls?” Bowser continued. “If the DMV doesn’t know what to do, what are poll workers supposed to do? The safest thing will be to not let people vote if they don’t have a photo ID.”

Reba, who has been a “staunch Republican” for most of her life, according to Knisley, plans to register “unaffiliated,” according to the ACT story. You go, Reba!



Knisley said she also filed a complaint with U.S. Department of Justice on Miller Bowser’s behalf.

“Ed and I are both glad that the DMV responded,” Knisley said. “On the other side, it’s so unnerving that a person who’s a legal citizen, who’s been voting for 65 years and has all the proper documentation can walk into a DMV and be denied a photo ID.”