Senate Approves Citizen-only Voting Amendment for 2024 Ballots, Passes Additional Constitutional Amendments to Cap Maximum Tax Rate and Expand Voter ID
Voters will decide on citizen-only voting this November
Raleigh, N.C. — Today, Republicans in the North Carolina Senate voted to put one constitutional amendment on 2024 general election ballots, and passed two additional constitutional amendments for consideration.
House Bill 1074 would clarify that only U.S. citizens shall be permitted to vote in North Carolina’s elections. As it stands today, noncitizens can cast ballots in at least 14 municipalities across the country. North Carolina’s citizen voter provision is not as strongly written as other states, and with Democrats seeking to give hundreds of thousands of noncitizens voting rights, there can be no room for doubt.
“President Joe Biden has been asleep at the wheel the past four years, letting millions of people illegally cross the border into our country. Now, as voters are fleeing the Democratic party in droves, Democrats are seeking to fill the gap by extending voting rights to noncitizens,” Sens. Brad Overcash (R-Gaston), Buck Newton (R-Wilson), and Warren Daniel (R-Burke) said. “To combat this movement, we are empowering North Carolinians to approve a constitutional amendment to make it crystal clear that our elections are for U.S. citizens only.”
The second proposal lowers the maximum income tax rate that can be levied by the state from 7% to 5%. In 2018 voters passed a constitutional amendment to lower the maximum allowable income tax rate from 10% to 7%. Since then, the General Assembly has continued to cut taxes below that 7%. With this amendment, North Carolinians will have the opportunity to better align the tax cap with current tax rates and implement a constitutional barrier against any large tax hikes in the future.
“North Carolina’s economic track record is a great success, and it all goes back to tax reform championed by the Republican-led legislature. Given taxes have been cut routinely over the last six years, we think the people of North Carolina deserve another opportunity to lower the maximum tax rate, and better protect themselves from future government overreach,” Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) said.
The third proposal would expand the voter ID provision in North Carolina’s constitution to require all voters to show a photo ID, not just those voting in person. Currently, the constitution’s voter ID language is specific to those voting “in person.” This change would require voters to show a photo ID for in-person voting during the early voting periods and on Election Day, as well as absentee by-mail and provisional.
“Voter ID is a means of security that needs to be applied equally to all voters. Our constitution should reflect that, just as our current laws already do,” Sen. Paul Newton (R-Cabarrus) said.
Polling shows strong support for each of the proposed amendments. One North Carolina poll conducted in early May found that 87% of likely voters support a constitutional amendment clarifying that only citizens of the United States are eligible to vote in all state and local North Carolina elections. On the tax cap reduction, a recent poll of North Carolinians shows 71% are in favor of reducing the maximum allowable income tax rate in North Carolina to 4% — a full percentage point lower than the current proposal. That same poll found that 70% of North Carolinians support requiring voters to provide photo identification, even without exceptions.
