UNC Offers Free, Physical One Cards to Use For Voting; Court Rules in Favor of Mobile Option Too

UPDATE: A Wake Superior Court judge denied the Republican Party and Republican National Committee’s motion for a temporary restraining order on Thursday, according to the Associated Press. The ruling confirms UNC students and employees will be able to use mobile One Cards as a valid form of voter ID for early voting and Election Day — as well as the physical ID, if they so choose.

Below is the original story published prior to the ruling, which details the university’s efforts to offer free physical One Cards to those who need them for voting purposes.

UNC and its One Card office confirmed it will offer physical One Cards to students and employees who need it, as debate over whether the digital IDs should be accepted for voting is being litigated.

The university issued an update on its webpage dated Tuesday about the Mobile One Cards being approved by the North Carolina Board of Elections on August 22 as valid forms of identification at the polls. Last week, the state Republican Party and the Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit to try and prevent the mobile verification from being one of the options allowed under the state’s voter identification law.

In its update, UNC said any students and employees who chose the mobile One Card could request a physical copy at its One Card office at no cost. The physical card would not have the chip technology of the standard One Card, which is what is issued to those who do not go with the mobile option. The verification system — which UNC students and employees use for identification, access to facilities, and making purchases — moved to a digital option in the 2023-24 academic year for ease of access and to be compatible with contactless technology.

The State Board of Elections’ ruling, which was along party lines with the Democratic majority in favor, is the first in North Carolina on the use of a digital ID card under its current voter identification law. The Republican Party and Republican National Committee filed a complaint on September 12 arguing the state law distinctly requires the permitted identifications to be only in a physical form, aiming to have a temporary restraining order be put in place.

Other forms of valid voter IDs include North Carolina driver’s licenses, U.S. passports, military IDs, and ID cards printed by local Boards of Elections. UNC’s physical One Card’s validity is not at question in the complaint, meaning students are free to use those.

UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts confirmed the update to media on Thursday at the university’s Board of Trustees meeting.

“We’ve ordered supplies, we don’t anticipate any problems supplying the physical cards,” said Roberts. “Students prefer the digital cards, obviously, they do most other things on their phones — it’s easier to have the virtual card on their phone instead of carrying the additional, separate card, which is why we filled out the form with the Elections Board to make the virtual card technologically equivalent to the physical card for the purposes of voting.”

“I think this happened with multiple schools,” the chancellor added, “[where] some schools had their virtual cards approved, others did not. Ours was approved: as things stand now, the virtual card is valid for voting — pending whatever decisions get made in this litigation, which we’re not a party to.”

The complaint filed by the Republican Party and Republican National Committee is set to have a temporary restraining order hearing at 3:45 p.m. in the Wake County Courthouse on Thursday.

Featured photo via UNC-Chapel Hill.

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UNC Offers Free, Physical One Cards to Use For Voting; Court Rules in Favor of Mobile Option Too

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