A North Carolina judge rejected a Republican-led effort to block virtual student IDs from being used as acceptable voter IDs for the election, ruling the state board did not violate the law in approving their use.
Last month, the Democratic-led state board of elections approved the use of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Mobile UNC One Card for voter ID along party lines. The approval marked the first virtual form of identification ruled in compliance with voter ID laws in the state. Shortly after the approval, the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party sued the state election board, arguing state law did not allow virtual IDs to be used to verify identity when voting.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory rejected the GOP’s request for a temporary restraining order blocking the approval, arguing that the state election board was likely to succeed on the merits of the case.
“Plaintiffs’ contention that state law forbids approval of digital or electronic photo identification, like the UNC Mobile One Card, as a means of proving one’s identity for voting is incorrect,” Gregory wrote in his ruling on Thursday.
The ruling comes a month before in-person early voting in the Tar Heel State begins on Oct. 17. The November election will be the first major election since the state’s voter ID law took effect. The Republican-led state legislature passed the law in 2018, but it was blocked pending legal challenges until May 2023.
North Carolina is expected to be one of the most hotly contested states in the presidential election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump narrowly leads Harris in the Real Clear Politics polling average, 47.6%-47.5%, and the Cook Political Report has rated the state as a “toss-up.”
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In the gubernatorial race, Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein holds a 9.4-point lead in the Real Clear Politics polling average over Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has been embroiled in controversy throughout the campaign.
The latest controversy for Robinson came Thursday, with a CNN report alleging he called himself a “black Nazi” and used racist, antisemitic, and homophobic slurs on a pornography site’s message board. Robinson called the report “salacious tabloid trash” and said he would not drop out of the race.