UNC-Chapel Hill students can already use their campus cards as their voter ID, but most have replaced that card with a mobile credential. During a recent meeting of the North Carolina State Election Board (NCSBE), the use of the mobile student ID was approved.

The 3-2 vote was along partisan lines, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. Chapel Hill students can begin using the new ID in the Nov. 5 general election.

Lindsey Wakely, Deputy General Counsel for NCSBE, told the board that the Mobile UNC One Card for students and employees complies with statutory criteria after election staff reviewed the college’s application forms.

North Carolina requires that voter IDs contain an expiration date, and Chapel Hill worked to comply with that requirement by adding the date to the mobile ID

But other board members disagreed.

“A mobile app is not an identification card,” says Republican board member Stacy Eggers.

“This is a different process we’re doing here than simply giving my friend my football tickets when I download them from the website,” he says. “In my reading of the statute, we simply don’t have the authority to do a mobile app in lieu of an identification card.”

In addition to questioning the security of the mobile credential, he went on to point out other concerns, including whether such a move requires legislative change and what the impacts might be on poll workers accepting this new form of ID.

Statutory change is one of the central issues in the debate. North Carolina’s voter ID law includes many references to cards but none to mobile or digital IDs. The law never states that the ID must be a physical card, but the vagary gave both sides room to argue.

Unlike Eggers, Democrat Board Chair Alan Hirsch believes legislative changes are not required.

“My own view is that there’s certainly enough flexibility within the statute for us to approve a digital card as a card,” says Hirsch. “I think that’s the way of the world … (the) younger generation lives by that and they don’t carry cards.”

A dissenter said a mobile app is not an identification card. We're not simply giving football tickets away after downloading them from the website

In North Carolina, there is requirement that voter IDs contain an expiration date.

According to Karen Brinson Bell, NCSBE Executive Director, the Board has rejected requests from other universities to accept their mobile IDs because they did not include an expiration date.

Chapel Hill, however, does have an expiration date on the mobile credential, which brings it into compliance.

“The state Republican Party later criticized the approval and suggested a possible legal challenge ahead,” says an AP article (https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-voter-identification-university-mobile-33a78f54c45a739b2c201c79dcbcd30d). “Minor adjustments to ballot access could affect outcomes in several anticipated close statewide races this fall in North Carolina.”

If your state accepts your institution’s mobile ID for voting, please comment below so we can further this discussion.