NC elections board to vote on use of digital IDs for voting

The North Carolina State Board of Elections will decide Tuesday whether to accept the digital version of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s student ID as a form of photo voter ID.

UNC Chapel Hill students can still get a physical ID card on request, but incoming students are transitioning to primarily using a digital student ID on their phone, which they can use to access buildings and pay for meals.

UNC’s physical student ID has already been approved for use as a voter ID. But Republican state elections board member Stacy Eggers objected to including the digital version, so the board will take a formal vote on it Tuesday.

The board has never approved a digital ID in the past, and voter Gary Jewell says they shouldn’t start.

“I think voter ID is critical and I think something on the phone is probably not gonna be good enough that it can’t be duplicated,” Jewell told WRAL News.

But voter Lisa Scott says it should be acceptable.

“I think that it’s not any less secure than anything else, so if I’m able to use a face ID to get into my phone and I have my state ID on my phone, I should be good to go,” Scott said.

Whatever they decide, this issue isn’t going away anytime soon. The University of North Carolina is one of many schools moving to mobile student ID cards for everything from access to buildings to paying for food.

The question also goes well beyond just college campuses.

According to ZDNet, at least 11 states have digital driver’s licenses: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New York and Utah.

In July, state lawmakers directed the North Carolina DMV to roll out its own digital driver’s license program by summer 2025.

However, the North Carolina law specifies that the digital license is “supplemental.” Several other states do the same, like Georgia, which doesn’t accept its digital license as a substitute for the actual document if a motorist is pulled over.

It’ll likely be up to state lawmakers in 2025 to decide whether digital licenses can be used at the polls.