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Stop the Voter ID Bill

Every time we've allowed voter restrictions like the poll tax or literacy tests in North Carolina, we've seen one result: legal voters stripped of their dignity and the full rights of their citizenship, and turned away from the polling place.

Now, Republicans in the General Assembly have served up a voter suppression bill for our generation. They say it's aimed at stopping fraud, but we've been here before. And the last time it took nearly a hundred years and the civil rights movement to put things right again.

The Voter ID Bill isn't about fraud -- it's fiction. It’s an expensive, complicated solution to an imaginary problem.

This bill will keep a lot of good people who would never think about cheating their neighbors from voting. And those who want to game the system will just find another way to do it.

It's up to us to stop this bill from becoming a law. Sign this petition and demand that the Voter ID Bill be stopped.

Join us and add your name to the list of North Carolinian's ready to Stop the Voter ID Bill.

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Voter ID Bill Petition

Whereas, voter identification will impose voter restrictions and put up obstacles for honest voters, and; Whereas, according to Democracy North Carolina, it is estimated that at least 7% or 400,000 North Carolina registered voters do not possess valid and current government issued photo identification, and;

Whereas, the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles charges $10 to any North Carolina citizen to issue an identification card, and;

Whereas, such fees, as well as any expenses incurred in obtaining government issued identification, including time taken off from work, transportation to and from the DMV office represent a poll tax in the event that voting rights are restricted to persons who can produce such identification, and;

Whereas, penalties for voter impersonation fraud, a Class I felony, and current voter registration identification standards, are already an effective deterrent to voter impersonation fraud, and;

Whereas, the burden of this discriminatory law is expected to fall most heavily on those persons who are least likely to already have a government-issued photo ID (the elderly, the disabled, the poor and minorities), and;

Whereas, the cost of educating voters to the new law, training Boards of Elections administrators and poll workers, paying the cost for photo identification cards for indigent citizens as is required by the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as the cost of any lawsuits resulting from the law’s passage, will have to be added to our already strained state budget, and;

Be it therefore resolved that we, the undersigned call on the North Carolina General Assembly to reject any legislation requiring a voter ID to vote in North Carolina.