Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.
I was the primary sponsor of SB 824, the bill to implement the will of the voters to require a Voter ID. Once again the court has ruled that the law requiring Voter ID is unconstitutional. Think about that. A law, passed by the citizens of this state, to amend the Constitution to require a Voter ID when voting is ….. unconstitutional. You just can’t make this stuff up.
Late on Friday afternoon, a three judge panel in Wake County voted 2-1, along party lines, that the voter ID law is unconstitutional. The Democrat majority found that SB 824 was “motivated at least in part by an unconstitutional intent to target African-American voters.” The court ignored a mountain of evidence to reach their preferred outcome.
The dissenting judge pointed out that the court wove together “speculations and conjectures” and plaintiffs presented circumstantial evidence as discriminatory intent. The court found that since North Carolina’s original Voter ID law, HB 589, was deemed unconstitutional by a federal court, then SB 824 must also be unconstitutional. Never mind that it was a different bill with many additions of acceptable identifications. The bill also allowed for anyone who didn’t have an ID to still vote by signing an attestation that they are who they claim to be. This was added as a reasonable impediment clause. Therefore, everyone would be able to vote, with or without an ID.
Remember that photo identification is free to anyone. There is no reason for anyone to not have an ID. In fact, I contend that there are very few, if any, citizens who do not have a photo ID. In order to function in the real world and participate in society, one must have an ID. If there is someone who does not have such an ID, we should all be turning over stones to locate them and help them. They are missing out on many things in life.
By the way, the plaintiffs, in the legal case, were unable to present a single witness who would be disenfranchised because of the Voter ID law. My common sense tells me that a requirement to prove disenfranchisement would be a witness who is disenfranchised. Silly me. One would think that if there is someone out there who would be disenfranchised, the plaintiffs would have certainly found them.
The court completely insulted my co-sponsor of the bill. Senator Joel Ford, an African American Democrat. (I ask you, would he support a racist bill? Of course not.) The judges dismissed Senator Ford’s participation in the legislation by saying he wasn’t caucusing with the Democrats at the time and therefore “misapprehended” that the bill was bipartisan. What does his caucusing have to do with the issue? To further insult Senator Ford, the court suggested that he didn’t understand the bill he sponsored. Let me see if we have this right. The fact that an intelligent sitting Senator can think differently than most Democrats, means he doesn’t understand.
Let’s look at where an ID is required:
Purchase alcohol or cigarettes, bank transactions, apply for any government services like Medicaid, apply for a job, rent or purchase property, rent a car, board an airplane, adopt a pet, rent a hotel, buy a cell phone, apply for hunting, fishing license, pick up a prescription, buy cold medication, pick up packages at post offices, hospitals and other medical facilities. The list could go on and on.
Also, the Winston-Salem Forsyth County School System requires an ID to visit a school or pick up a child. As far as I know there have been no cries of racism for any of these requirements. How is it that only for voting is it unconstitutional?
Some will argue that it’s ok to require ID for many things but not for voting since it’s instilled in the Constitution. Well, so is the right to keep and bear arms. Try purchasing a gun without an ID required. The first amendment to the Constitution also defines the right to assemble and to protest. Permits are required for such activities and an ID is essential. Freedom of movement is recognized under the “privileges and immunities” clause of the Constitution. That doesn’t stop the requirement for ID to board a plane to move freely. Why are these situations not racist?
Why would anyone go to such lengths to prevent a Voter ID from becoming law? That’s the question we all should be asking.
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Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.