Majority of early and absentee voters in NC brought photo IDs to the polls

A law requiring North Carolinians to show a photo ID when voting went into effect last fall.

A report by Democracy North Carolina, a nonprofit focused on democratic processes, found that confusion and misinterpretation of the law led to some voter disenfranchisement last year. 

But state officials say there’s been improvement based on absentee and early voting statistics. 

North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell gave an update at a press conference Tuesday morning. 

“Only about three out of every 10,000 voters had to vote a provisional ballot due to the photo ID requirement," Bell said. "We believe this is a strong sign that the word is getting out that you should bring your ID to vote.”

Of the roughly 695,000 early and absentee voters in the primary election, Bell says only 216 had to vote a provisional ballot by either filling out an ID exception form, or agreeing to return with acceptable identification by March 14. 

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.