State Board holds hearing on proposed photo ID election rule changes
RALEIGH — The North Carolina State Board of Elections scheduled a public hearing Tuesday on proposed amendments to rules governing the state’s photo identification requirement for voting.
The hearing was scheduled for 2 p.m. June 9 in the board room at the State Board of Elections in the Dobbs Building, 430 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh. The hearing is part of a broader rulemaking process covering proposed rules for absentee voting, photo ID, recounts and voting sites.
The State Board said the proposed photo ID rule amendments pertain to photo identification for in-person and absentee voting. According to the agency’s rulemaking page, the changes would make technical language updates and refinements to election procedures.
The proposed rules include amendments to 08 NCAC 17 .0101, which covers verification of photo identification during in-person voting, and 08 NCAC 17 .0109, which covers photo identification for absentee-by-mail ballots. The board said the proposed amendments would align certain deadlines with statutory deadlines, reorder the list of provisional voting options and require county board decisions on exception affidavits to be made by majority vote.
The public comment period for the proposed photo ID rules runs from May 15 through July 14. Members of the public may comment online, by email, by mail or at the in-person hearing.
The State Board said it will review public comments and consider revisions before taking final action on the rules. Adopted rules are submitted to the Rules Review Commission for final approval before they become effective.
The rulemaking process comes as North Carolina prepares for the 2026 general election cycle. The board has also opened comment periods for proposed absentee voting rules, recount rules and voting site rules. Public hearings for those rule sets are scheduled separately.
Editor’s note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.
