Confusion on Campuses Over Voter ID

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Good morning, readers.

Our thoughts are with our neighbors in Western North Carolina who are just beginning to assess the full extent of the damage from Hurricane Helene. 

If you’re looking to help, Blue Ridge Public Radio and WFAE have good lists of organizations working on the ground and in the air. 

And our partners at The Assembly report on what affected residents need to know about federal assistance, insurance, and price-gouging rules and on a shelter south of Asheville taking in people and pets displaced from their homes. 

On Friday, the North Carolina Court of Appeals issued an injunction that will prevent the more than 20,000 UNC-Chapel Hill students with digital students IDs from using those IDs to vote in the general election this fall. 

The NC Board of Elections voted to allow students to use digital student IDs as a valid form of voter ID in August, but earlier this month, the state Republican Party sued the board over its decision. The Republican-majority court sided with the GOP. 

As the 9th Street Journal reports, there’s confusion on college campuses about what kinds of IDs students can use to vote—and this confusion has real consequences. 

Duke University transitioned to all-digital student IDs in 2023. University administrators learned in August that its students wouldn’t be allowed to use those digital IDs to vote this fall and the university has since been working to issue physical IDs that undergraduate students can use at the polls. 

In the March primary, the first election in North Carolina that required IDs to vote, 288 Duke students voted, and 1 in 8 of those students had their ballot thrown out, a rate nearly double that of the rest of Durham County. Invalid ID was cited as the most common reason for those votes being tossed. 

“For a Duke student, you practically need a Venn diagram to know what to do in order to vote,” says Julia Borbely-Brown, a voting rights volunteer in Durham.

But Duke Votes, a student-led organization focused on increasing voter access, is helping students make sure they have the physical voter ID cards they need to cast ballots. At UNC, students who need a valid form of photo ID to vote can get one at the UNC OneCard office. 

North Carolina driver’s licenses or state ID cards are also accepted.

Have a good Monday.

—Jane

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Durham

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Wake

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Orange

The Town of Carrboro received the national Leading the Way award for the quality of its services and use of public funding.

North Carolina

The death toll from Hurricane Helen has climbed to 30, according to Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller, with around 1,000 people still missing.  

Floodwaters wiped out the entire main street of the town of Chimney Rock.

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