North Carolina lawmakers consider three constitutional questions to put on November ballot

A state Senate committee Thursday approved three constitutional amendments to add to the November ballot.

The three proposed amendments would have no immediate practical effect because the proposals correspond to current state law. All three could help increase Republican turnout in November.

Existing constitutional language requiring voter ID would be amended to indicate that photo IDs are also required to vote by mail. Sen. Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus, is sponsoring the proposal.

“North Carolina voters have already chosen to enshrine a voter ID standard in our state constitution,” Newton said, “and current state law already requires absentee mail-in voters to provide a copy of their ID when they vote.”

Another amendment would lower the constitutional income tax rate cap from 7% to 5%. That amount is still higher than the current tax rate, but could prevent future lawmakers from raising taxes.

This change would follow a 2018 constitutional amendment that lowered the tax cap from 10% to 7%. The current personal income tax rate is on track to rise from 4.5% this year to 3.99% from 2026.

The Third Amendment would add a ban on non-citizen voting to the constitution, another policy already enshrined in state law. This amendment is similar to one sponsored by House Speaker Tim Moore.

Ann Webb of the advocacy group Common Cause North Carolina criticized the amendment, saying it is “driven by conspiracy theories about non-citizen voting that are endemic in our politics today and are designed to tear our voters apart. …It is already a crime in North Carolina to encourage even a non-citizen to register to vote.

Thursday’s action adds the other two amendments to the non-citizen voting amendment. Moore said he supports the voter ID amendment, but he’s not sure his chamber would support reducing the income tax cap.

“I want to look at changing the income tax,” he said. “We’re going to need a (Republican) caucus (meeting). It will be one of those where every member of the caucus will have to agree to say yes, because you have to have 72 votes.

The proposed amendments could come up for votes in the House and Senate next week, as lawmakers prepare to take summer recess.

“The Constitution is something that’s a little more difficult for future legislatures to change,” Senate Leader Phil Berger said Thursday. “We think it is appropriate for people to weigh in on whether or not they want their constitution to be read similarly to the one we have proposed.”