CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT #1
Photo ID for All Voters
Here’s the language you will see on your ballot:
“Constitutional amendment to require all voters, not just those presenting to vote in person, to present photo identification before voting.”
BOTTOM LINE
North Carolina law already applies its photo-ID requirement to both in-person and absentee-by-mail voting. So, we’re not talking about whether voter ID in general is good or bad. There are really just two questions sitting on the table:
(1) What problem does this amendment actually solve that existing North Carolina absentee-ballot law does not?
And, because the existing absentee-voter ID requirement is already established by state law:
(2) If absentee voters already have to provide photo ID, should that existing requirement now be made considerably more difficult for a future legislature to change?
What we know for sure is that putting the requirement into the North Carolina Constitution will do exactly that.
OVERVIEW
The existing North Carolina Constitution, Article VI, says:
“Photo identification for voting in person. – Voters offering to vote in person shall present photographic identification before voting. The General Assembly shall enact general laws governing the requirements of such photographic identification, which may include exceptions.”
The proposed amendment removes the words “offering to vote in person.”
It turns out that while at first glance the proposed change in the Constitution itself appears quite small, its legal significance is considerably larger.
SOURCE: North Carolina General Assembly, Session Law 2024-58.
HOW DOES THIS AMENDMENT CHANGE EXISTING LAW?
North Carolina already requires photo identification from people who vote absentee by mail.
According to the State Board of Elections, absentee voters must include a photocopy of an acceptable photo ID with their returned ballot materials. If they are unable to provide an ID, they can complete an ID Exception Form.
Military and overseas voters are now subject to a similar requirement. The State Board says those voters must submit a photocopy of an acceptable ID or an ID Exception Form when returning their ballots. That requirement followed changes arising from a 2025 North Carolina Supreme Court ruling.
SOURCE: North Carolina State Board of Elections, “Voter ID” and guidance for military and overseas voters.
The important difference is this:
For in-person voters, the photo-ID requirement exists in both the North Carolina Constitution and state law.
For absentee-by-mail voters, the photo-ID requirement exists in state law, but the general requirement is not presently in the North Carolina Constitution.
If the amendment passes, the North Carolina Constitution itself will require photographic identification before voting generally, not merely before voting in person. The General Assembly will continue determining the details and may establish exceptions.
WHAT SUPPORTERS SAY
Supporters argue that the Constitution should apply the same basic identification principle to all voters rather than constitutionally requiring voter identification only for people who physically appear at a polling place. They also argue that photo identification provides an additional safeguard against someone voting in another person’s name and contributes to public confidence in election results.
It’s important to note here that statutes can be changed by a future General Assembly. Constitutional requirements cannot be changed that easily.
So, if voters approve this amendment, a future legislature could still determine the mechanics of the ID requirement and may establish exceptions. But eliminating the constitutional requirement itself would require yet another constitutional amendment put forward to North Carolina voters.
By putting this amendment before voters, the state legislature is asking us to move the broader photo-ID requirement from state law into the Constitution, making it considerably more difficult for a future legislature to change.
WHAT OPPONENTS SAY
Opponents argue that absentee voters are already required to provide identification, so the amendment is not creating an absentee-voter ID requirement where none already exists. They also argue that putting the requirement into the Constitution unnecessarily restricts future legislatures from responding to changing voting requirements, systems or circumstances.
Current law allows voters who cannot provide acceptable identification to use an ID Exception Form under defined circumstances. But importantly, the current ID Exception Form protections themselves are not written into the proposed constitutional amendment.
If the amendment passes, the Constitution will instead say that the General Assembly “may” — not “shall” — include exceptions. That leaves the details, and future changes to those details, in the hands of the state legislature.
SOURCE: Session Law 2024-58; North Carolina State Board of Elections voter-ID guidance.
WHAT THE BALLOT DOESN’T TELL YOU
Let’s take another look at the ballot language for this Amendment:
“Constitutional amendment to require all voters, not just those presenting to vote in person, to present photo identification before voting.”
A voter reading only that sentence could reasonably come away believing that North Carolina presently requires ID from in-person voters but does not require it from absentee voters.
But that isn’t the current law. Absentee voters are already required by state law to provide photo ID or complete an ID Exception Form.
What the amendment actually does is take an existing statutory absentee-voter ID requirement and make the underlying photo-ID requirement constitutional.
EVEN THE OFFICIAL VOTER EXPLANATION DOESN’T EXPLAIN THAT TO VOTERS
The Legislative Services Office (LSO) of the North Carolina General Assembly is the administrative and support agency that runs the day-to-day operations of the state legislature. State law requires the Legislative Services Officer to prepare an explanation of every proposed constitutional amendment in “simple and commonly used language” at least 75 days before the election.
But the Officer’s official explanation of this amendment does not tell voters that absentee voters already face a photo-ID requirement under current state law. It says only:
“This amendment to the North Carolina Constitution would require presentation of photographic identification for voters in all instances in North Carolina elections.”
SOURCE: G.S. 147-54.10; 2026 Legislative Services Officer constitutional-amendment explanations.
A LOOK INSIDE THE SAUSAGE MAKING OF THIS AMENDMENT
This constitutional amendment proposal didn’t begin taking shape just this year.
Its history really started with North Carolina’s 2018 voter-ID constitutional amendment. That amendment placed the requirement for photo identification for in-person voting into the Constitution. The General Assembly later extended photo-ID requirements by statute to absentee-by-mail voting.
Then came Senate Bill 921, and the actions and timelines are important.
DECEMBER 2024
By the time SB921 was introduced in December 2024, state law already required absentee voters to provide photo identification or claim an exception under certain circumstanes.
SB921 was sponsored by three Republican senators: Ralph Hise, Warren Daniel and Paul Newton. Rather than creating a new statutory absentee-ID requirement, the bill proposed changing the Constitution itself by removing the phrase “offering to vote in person.”
The Senate passed the amendment 30–19. Every Republican voting supported it. Every Democrat voting opposed it.
The House then passed the bill 73–45. Republicans voting supported it, joined by Democratic Representative Shelly Willingham; the other Democrats voting opposed it.
SOURCE: North Carolina General Assembly, SB921 legislative history and House Roll Call #810.
The General Assembly ratified the amendment proposal on December 13, 2024. But instead of submitting it immediately to voters, lawmakers scheduled the referendum for the November 3, 2026 general election.
SOURCE: Session Law 2024-58.
SO WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE US?
I started with two questions.
The first was: “What problem does this amendment actually solve that existing North Carolina absentee-ballot law does not?” After looking through the Amendment’s legislative history, I still don’t have a confident answer.
North Carolina already requires absentee-by-mail voters to provide photo identification or complete an ID Exception Form.
I have not found a legislative finding identifying an absentee-voter impersonation problem, failure of the existing ID system, or other specific problem that this constitutional amendment is intended to fix. If such a problem exists or a supporter has offered such an argument, I can’t find evidence of it in the legislative material I’ve reviewed.
What I can identify clearly is what the amendment changes legally.
The existing absentee-voter ID requirement is statutory. A future General Assembly can change a statute. If this amendment passes, the underlying requirement that voters present photographic identification before voting will instead be embedded in the North Carolina Constitution.
A future General Assembly could still determine how the requirement operates and could provide exceptions, but it could not simply repeal the constitutional requirement. Changing that would require another constitutional amendment approved by voters.
Which takes us back to the second question:
If absentee voters already have to provide photo ID, should that existing requirement now be made considerably more difficult for a future legislature to change? My determination is “NO,” and I’m voting “AGAINST.”