Students at more than half of all North Carolina community colleges will not be allowed to use their student IDs to vote in the upcoming midterm elections because their schools failed to get required state approval.

Some colleges said it was too difficult to update their IDs to meet state criteria, while others said it was worth the effort to expand voting access.

Under state law, colleges and universities must get their student IDs approved by the State Board of Elections before students can use them to vote. 

According to the board, just 24 of the state’s 58 community colleges sought and received approval ahead of the April 1, 2025, deadline for this year’s midterm election. That’s four fewer schools than were approved for the 2024 election, the first statewide general election that required photo ID. 

In comparison, the University of North Carolina System got approval for the ID cards at all of its 16 colleges or universities, according to the elections board. Many of the state’s largest private universities, including Duke, Wake Forest and Elon, have also gotten their IDs approved.

An NC Local analysis of the most recently available headcount enrollment data from last school year found that about 341,000 voting age students attend a community college without a state-approved student ID in this upcoming election. 

“Making [voting] easier and making it accessible should be the process we’re working under, instead of putting up barriers like this or putting more work on the voter to determine what their options are,” Caitlin Metzguer, a deputy state director at the nonpartisan pro-democracy group Common Cause North Carolina, said.  

College students may register to vote in the state so long as they’re U.S. citizens, have lived in the county where they’re registering for at least 30 days prior to Election Day, and aren’t serving a felony sentence or on probation or parole. Students can still use other forms of ID to vote, including driver’s licenses and passports. 

But the Fair Elections Center, a national nonpartisan voting rights group, said the state’s process requiring schools to get their IDs certified is “convoluted,” declaring it the most “cumbersome” student voter ID provision in the country.    

Voters who might not have another form of acceptable ID could feel the effects, advocates said.

“Young people and students are increasingly getting driver’s licenses less and less,” Lily Talerman, voting rights counsel at the North Carolina-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ), said. “Student IDs are often the easiest form of ID for them to use when voting and have that vote counted and not have to cast a provisional ballot.” 

According to SCSJ, 60% of 18-year-olds in North Carolina have a driver’s license, the most commonly used form of voter ID.

NC Local contacted all 34 community colleges that failed to apply ahead of deadline for their students to use school IDs to vote this year. 

Of the 15 schools that responded, several said they did not seek approval because their IDs did not comply with the state’s criteria, such as a required expiration date on the ID and preventing unauthorized access to ID-making equipment. 

At least two schools submitted applications after the April 2025 deadline. A Craven Community College spokesperson said it would be too costly to establish a secure space for its ID equipment, given what they believed was a lack of student need.

Other colleges, however, said only small adjustments were needed to comply.

Wake Technical Community College, the state’s largest two-year school, simply added an expiration date to comply with eligibility requirements, Brian Gann, vice president of enrollment and student services, said.

“For us, it seemed like a pretty logical thing to do,” Gann said. “We want our students to vote, and if our student ID card can be a form of approved photo ID, then that was an opportunity that we wanted to let students take advantage of.”

The nation’s ‘most cumbersome’ student ID law

Thirty-seven states require voters to show identification at the polls, with 16 states allowing any school-issued student IDs to be used, according to the Fair Elections Center.

Meanwhile, some states are banning the use of student IDs to vote altogether, and President Donald Trump has pushed for a proposal to ban in-person voters from using student IDs as part of his federal elections overhaul bill that has struggled to pass in Congress.

After North Carolina voters in 2018 approved a constitutional amendment to require an ID to vote, lawmakers approved such strict eligibility requirements for student IDs that few public university IDs qualified. The next year, lawmakers eased those restrictions, but only slightly. 

North Carolina schools must apply every two years and meet several requirements to get their student IDs approved including:

• The cards must have expiration dates. 
• Schools must have a process to verify the student’s identity and photo. 
• Schools must limit access to ID-making equipment on campus and fire any employee who misuses it. 
• Schools must contact police if they suspect unauthorized use of the ID equipment by students. 

If approved, schools have to give students a copy of state voting rules. 

Mark Ellison, Southwestern Community College’s dean of students, said applying was a “simple process,” one the college undertook to increase voting access. 

“The only change we had to make was to add an expiration date,” Ellison said in an emailed statement. “It was not something that students, faculty or staff asked us to do.”

Randolph Community College President Shah Ardalan also said his school had no issues. The school recently revamped its student IDs to meet state requirements to expand voting access for students.

“We take care of the whole student,” Ardalan said. “It’s not just teaching them English, math or engineering.” 

Many schools that did not apply gave broad reasons: It was too expensive or would require equipment or process changes to comply with state law. But when pressed by NC Local, few schools offered more specifics about those barriers.

Five schools whose IDs were approved for use in 2024 did not reapply for this year’s election, according to elections board data. To reapply, school officials check a box on the application form indicating their IDs haven’t changed and sign it. Advocates argued even that’s too burdensome.

“One way to make it easier is once you’re in, you’re in,” Metzguer, with Common Cause North Carolina, said. 

Haywood Community College got its IDs approved for the 2024 election but didn’t seek reapproval for this year. Spokesperson Michelle Harris cited several reasons, including having to certify the citizenship status of its students. But that is no longer a requirement, according to elections board guidance, nor was it a requirement two years ago.

Harris did not respond to follow-up questions.

Edgecombe Community College, which also did not reapply, missed the deadline, spokesperson Tameka Kenan-Norman said.

“We are working to implement measures to ensure future reapproval applications are submitted on time,” she said. 

Some schools said they did not apply because they’re commuter schools, meaning students don’t live on campus. They said students could use other IDs, like a driver’s license, to vote. 

“Students can already use various other forms of identification for the purposes of participating in elections,” Rachel Colquitt, a spokesperson for South Piedmont Community College, said in an email. “The college did not feel it was necessary to participate in the optional approval process to have our student IDs added to the list of acceptable forms of documentation.”

Patrick Williamson, policy counsel at the Fair Elections Center, said it was a “dangerous assumption” for schools to think all students have a driver’s license and said marginalized individuals, in particular, “lack access to having a driver’s license or are much less likely to have a driver’s license than some of their peers.”

Autumn Crockett of Swannanoa, outside of Asheville, is one of those students without a driver’s license.

Crockett, who plans to vote for the first time this year, attends Buncombe County Early College, located on the campus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. She turns 18 later this month, and said the only photo identification she has is the one AB-Tech provides  — a relief, she said, because it is among those approved for use at the ballot box. 

“It’s a really good privilege to have,” Crockett said. “But I wish other community college students had that opportunity.” 

Some schools contacted by NC Local said they plan to seek approval when the next application period opens in 2027. 

Unnecessary confusion

State Democratic lawmakers have filed bills to create a grant program so schools could upgrade equipment and facilities to produce student IDs that pass muster with the state. But the measures never passed. 

Former state Sen. Graig Meyer, who resigned from the General Assembly earlier this year to head the North Carolina Justice Center, backed the legislation and said one reason the bills failed was because North Carolina Community College System leaders didn’t push for it.

“If they don’t ask for it,” Meyer said, “they’re not going to get it.”

Tiffany Skouby, the system’s student life director, did not respond to questions about why the system hadn’t adopted universal ID standards or requested money from lawmakers to do so. A system spokesperson also did not respond to a request for comment.

Overall, advocates fear the patchwork list of schools where students can use their IDs to vote creates unnecessary confusion. 

According to a SCSJ report, multiple students from Central Piedmont Community College, which did not seek ID approval for the 2024 or 2026 elections, called a voter hotline in 2024 wondering if they could use their student ID to vote, only to find out they couldn’t. (Voters without photo ID can cast a provisional ballot, but only for certain reasons, like if their ID was lost or stolen.)

A school spokesperson did not respond to questions asking why the school had not sought approval from the state elections board.

Meanwhile, some colleges are phasing out physical student IDs for digital versions, adding an additional complexity that advocates fear could create more confusion for students. Any measure to allow digital or mobile IDs at the ballot box would require legislative action.

Several voting rights groups are pushing for their use, especially as the state plans to launch a mobile driver’s license later this year. As of now, voters won’t be able to cast a ballot with the mobile license, but they will be able to pass through airport security checks with it.

This story is a collaboration between NC Local and Open Campus.

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