DMV blunders undermined Voter ID law
Published June 23, 2015
by Matt Caulder, Capitol Connection, June 19, 2015.
Blunders at the state Division of Motor Vehicles in the state Department of Transportation undermined a crucial vote reform, it was revealed Friday.
State lawmakers softened a portion of North Carolina’s voter law Thursday that would have required all voters to have a state-issue ID to vote.
The change comes less than a month out from a federal court case on the issue to judge its constitutionality. The move puzzled and infuriated conservatives across the state.
The Senate voted 44-2 Thursday to allow voters without photo IDs to cast provisional ballots, if they claim hardship.
The House approved the conference report in a 104-3 vote and Gov. Pat McCrory says he will sign it.
Under the bill, voters could claim one of eight reasons for why they could not get an ID, or don’t have one with them, including lack of transportation, no documentation or even a stolen ID.
Observers said that they believed the reason for the change was that lawyers for the state were letting them know that the state would lose the case, but new information gives clues as to why.
According to Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca, lawmakers made the legal change because of mistakes at some Department of Motor Vehicle locations that led to citizens not being able to get free picture IDs, as required in the law.
In two separate emails, De Luca said he received information that prospective voters could not get the free IDs, leaving lawyers in a tough spot when it came to defending the voter ID law in court.
De Luca first spoke about the emails on the Freedom Action Network radio show Friday afternoon.
http://nccapitolconnection.com/2015/06/19/dmv-blunders-undermined-voter-id-law/
June 23, 2015 at 11:27 am
Richard L Bunce says:
The solution was not to modify the law but to fire the bureaucrats and NC DMV who were unable (or more likely unwilling) to implement the free ID program. That is always the problem with implementing changes in government not to the government bureaucracies liking, they will stonewall it. The solution is to fire them.
