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POLK COUNTY—Voters in the next election will have to show an ID in North Carolina. 

A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that a lower court incorrectly hindered plans to implement voter identification for voting in North Carolina. 

A state referendum last year was in overwhelmingly support of requiring identification in order to vote. 

The decision this week in the 3-judge panel was unanimous in overturning the December 2019 ruling by federal District Court Judge Loretta Biggs, who said that the voter identification requirement could cause irreparable harm to minority voters. 

The appellate court found that Biggs erred by disregarding the presumption of legislative good faith. 

Polk County’s state representative Jake Johnson commented on the ruling this week via social media. Johnson posted the news as breaking, saying, “Voter ID law, which was supported by the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians as a statewide referendum, has been unanimously upheld by 4th Circuit Panel. Holding ‘the district court’s opinion devotes little analysis,’ the court said, that ‘we reverse because of the fundamental legal errors that permeate the opinion.’”

Johnson said now that a federal court approved North Carolina’s voter ID law it must be implemented for the next election.