Changes to how overseas NC military members vote
North Carolina election officials have made some major changes to overseas and military voting rules following a court ruling.
The move comes after Novemberβs election for a state supreme court seat took months to resolve. It was the longest unresolved election in the country, and that one candidate challenged whether some ballots should have been counted.
In the lawsuit over that Supreme Court race, Jefferson Griffin challenged the ballots of overseas and military voters. Griffin said they could have been fraudulent because the state did not require photo ID, although he did not offer any evidence of any actual fraud.
The state Court of Appeals agreed, saying elections workers had been misinterpreting the intent of the stateβs photo ID law. The court also ruled that adult children of military or overseas voters who have never physically resided in North Carolina themselves should not be allowed to vote in state and local elections.
State Elections Director Sam Hayes said those voters will still be allowed to vote in federal races because federal law requires them to be allowed to, but their votes on other races will no longer be counted.
βThey are a U.S. citizen and they have to vote somewhere. And I agree. I mean, from a policy perspective certainly,β Hayes said. βPresident, thatβs easy. Going down from there, where do you put these people?
Ann Webb is an attorney with Common Cause North Carolina. She says itβs unusual for states to add extra requirements for military and overseas voters because theyβre already covered by federal voting laws that are uniform for all voters from all states.
Webb said decisions like this should be made by state lawmakers, not by state elections officials based on a single court ruling.
βI think thereβs a real question here of why isnβt the legislature having a discussion about what barriers there are for our military voters and their families to vote,β Webb said. βWhat other challenges might they have to submitting voter ID?β
