RALEIGH, N.C. _ North Carolina voters will be asked to show photo identification when they go to the polls next year, barring intervention by a court.
The Republican-led legislature took the final step to shrug off Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of its photo ID bill, with the House voting 72-40 Wednesday to override after a long debate that touched on the state's history of voter suppression.
The Senate took its override vote Tuesday.
Voter ID has been a longtime goal for Republicans. A voter ID requirement that passed as part of a 2013 bill was thrown out by federal courts in 2016. Republicans steered a photo voter ID question onto the November ballot as a constitutional amendment, and 55 percent of voters approved it.
Lawmakers followed up with a bill to implement the amendment. Cooper vetoed the bill last week. During a news conference Tuesday, he said the legislature should have waited until next session to talk about voter ID. The legislature will have more Democrats next year, and Republicans will no longer have veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate.
The law counts as acceptable IDs driver licenses, passports, military and veteran IDs, tribal enrollment cards, college IDs, state ID cards issued to non-drivers, state and municipal employee IDs, and a new type of ID issued by local boards of election.
People who don't have the required ID would be able to cast provisional ballots after signing an affidavit at the polls saying why they do not have one.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, the NC NAACP and other groups have a pending legal challenge to the constitutional amendments, including the voter ID amendment.
The NAACP said it would announce a new lawsuit Thursday.
