In the summer of 2013, the North Carolina state legislature passed a requirement that potential voters must show one of certain kinds of government-issued photo identification before being allowed to vote. The requirement started with the first election in 2016.
According to the North Carolina State Board of Elections website, the “soft roll-out” means that pollworkers ask voters if they have identification, but do not require the voters to present it.
In an effort to uncover barriers to program implementation and to educate voters, state election officials proceeded with a “soft roll-out” of the ID requirement during the 2014 elections.
In response, beginning with the primary election on May 6, 2014, Democracy North Carolina volunteers administered an exit poll at several locations across the state. Using those exit poll data, I prepared a report dated July 1, 2014 that showed that only about half of the voters knew when the ID requirement was slated to begin. Further, the survey evidence showed that there were statistically significant differences between white voters and African-American voters in terms of confidence in security and confidence in fairness of the rules.