Thomas Shanahan: Free Sheri Everts!

ASU Chancellor Sheri Everts

News leaking out of Raleigh suggests that the issue of certifying university IDs for the purposes of voting is as FUBAR as anything has ever been under the ministrations of the Republican overlords in the General Assembly.

Because some of the universities (a numerical minority, as we understand it) in the 16-member UNC System can't meet the requirements of the "attestation" form -- principally in the matter of allowing "selfies" for the photo -- UNC General Counsel Thomas Shanahan is forcing all the universities to refrain from signing, which will inevitably disadvantage and potentially disenfranchise thousands of students who otherwise would qualify for using their student IDs.

Appalachian State University is one of those universities that meet the requirements of the attestation form, but Chancellor Sheri Everts is clinging to the Thomas Shanahan "company line" and refusing to sign. She's received hefty raises from the conservative corps running the Board of Governors, and she's not likely to step out of line in support of her own students' constitutional rights. Instead, she promises to help students get a free ID, we assume by giving them the address and open hours of the DMV or the local Board of Elections.

Shanahan seemingly wants changes made to the attestation form, which would require changes to the law itself, which the Berger/Moore overlords are not going to do. So it's very likely at the moment that every student at every UNC-affiliated institution is about to be disenfrancised from using their student IDs to vote. Most severely impacted will be the students with out-of-state drivers licenses and students with no drivers licenses at all.

Shanahan could free up Chancellor Everts to sign the attestation form for AppState. Why won't he? Or she could simply refuse to toe the company line. Why won’t she? Perhaps because if some of The Sixteen sign the attestation, it will establish the tilted ground of uneven treatment under the law, which will provoke more lawsuits.

'Course, not allowing any of The Sixteen to sign is going to play into an existing lawsuit that's already challenging the constitutionality of the entire photo ID law.

Memo to Thomas Shanahan: Putting the constitutional rights of thousands of UNC-system students in jeopardy will not save the university system from itself.