Last week, we reported that the Republican National Committee (RNC) and North Carolina Republican Party (NC GOP) have challenged the North Carolina State Board of Elections’ (NCSBE) approval of a digital form of in-person voter identification for students and employees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).
This morning, the Elias Law Group filed a motion on behalf of the Affirmative Action Coalition, a registered UNC student organization made up of UNC students, to “protect the ability of its members and all of the approximately 32,000 UNC undergraduate, graduate, and professional students to vote in the state’s imminent elections….Because Affirmative Action Coalition has members who intend to use their mobile One Cards to vote, removing that option would seriously harm the organization by threatening its members’ and other UNC students’ fundamental voting rights.”
We have an interview request out to the leaders of the Affirmative Action Coalition and will update as we learn more.
Lee Roberts and other university leaders must speak up
It’s important that UNC leadership respond to this threat to students’ ability to vote in the upcoming election. At the very least, UNC should quickly implement a plan through which students who only have a digital One Card can receive a physical One Card at no cost to students. UNC should be proactive about alerting students to the risk posed by the lawsuit rather than relying on students to monitor the threat and expecting them to determine if and when to get a physical One Card.
At best, Chancellor Lee Roberts could leverage his considerable influence among NC Republicans to push for the case to be rescinded. He should publicly support UNC staffers who diligently applied for and received approval of the digital One Cards for voting and affirm that the measures UNC has in place to protect digital IDs are secure and consistent with NCSBE’s requirements. And he should unambiguously state UNC’s plan and timeline for delivering physical One Cards to students before early voting begins on October 17.
Roberts thought it was important to speak out about the importance of protecting the flag last spring. Surely he will speak out in favor of protecting voting for students on campus. Doing so will affirm his commitment to serving all UNC students and employees – including Republicans and Democrats – whose enfranchisement may be affected by this lawsuit.
(And please, Chancellor Roberts, no empty rhetoric about letting the case work its way through the courts. It’s 2024 and we live in North Carolina. Believing the courts are fair and impartial in this day and age is like believing ESPN’s coverage of Duke basketball EVERY SINGLE SEASON is fair and impartial.)
We are launching a petition to ask UNC Chapel Hill to immediately implement a plan to print physical One Cards at no cost to students and email students with instructions on how to receive them.
Share this post with others and ask them to sign – every UNC alumni, student, parent, and community member you know.
Check your voter registration and ensure you are registered to vote