RALEIGH, N.C. — A legal fight over two North Carolina constitutional amendments that voters approved eight years ago returned to court this week, just days before voters decide on new amendments touching the same subjects.
A three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals heard close to an hour of arguments Wednesday in the long-running case brought by the NAACP’s statewide conference. The group is challenging the 2018 amendments that required photo ID for in-person voting and dropped the ceiling on the state income tax rate from 10% to 7%. It wants the appeals court to overturn a September 2025 trial court decision, issued unanimously by a bipartisan three-judge panel, that upheld both measures.
The NAACP argues the trial judges disregarded an earlier state Supreme Court ruling that let the case go forward and misapplied the rules of civil procedure in disposing of it. Attorneys for the legislative leaders defending the amendments counter that the lower court did exactly what the high court required and point out that upward of 2 million voters statewide approved the measures.
Judges on the panel pressed both sides. One asked whether a trial court may decide on its own what evidence is relevant, and another asked whether passage of the amendments now on the ballot would make the whole dispute moot. The court did not rule from the bench.
The timing matters for voters. Two of the three questions on this year’s statewide ballot revisit the same ground: one would extend photo ID rules to every voter, including those who vote by mail, and the other would lower the income tax cap to 3.5%. A third would require limits on local property tax increases.
Saturday afternoon at 3 is the last chance to vote early in person, ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
Section: More Asheville NC politics news
Filed under: Asheville NC Politics News
