Associated Press

RALEIGH - A new constitutional amendment will require North Carolina voters to show a photo ID before being allowed to cast ballots, but legislators will decide later what will count as valid and what won't.

A change to North Carolina's constitution approved Tuesday adds the state to the handful in the country that strictly require showing a photo ID to a poll worker when voting.

Some of the states allow exceptions to the law if people have religious objections to being photographed, are poor, or are granted special confidentiality as domestic abuse or stalking victims. North Carolina lawmakers aren't required to make any exceptions.

Legislators haven't detailed how voters could get the photo ID needed to vote or how much it would cost the state.

3 amendments pass, 2 rejected

North Carolina voters also approved constitutional amendments that will lock in recent state income tax cuts, expand crime victims' rights and affirm so-called "traditional" methods of hunting and fishing.

But voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have permanently given state lawmakers more power over the makeup of a state board that decides election and ethics disputes.

Another that would've given legislators more power in picking judges for vacant seats was also rejected.

An amendment to the state constitution approved on Tuesday caps the maximum state income tax at 7 percent, down from 10 percent. Critics said the result could mean that a recession could lead legislators to raise sales or property taxes or impose cutbacks on education, safety and other government services.

A constitutional change that would expand guarantees to crime victims was approved in exchange for a predicted cost of about $11 million per year.

North Carolinians also approved enshrining hunting and fishing with undefined "traditional methods," but also limited those rights to take wildlife to laws the General Assembly adopts.

The elections amendment rejected Tuesday by voters was designed by Republican legislators to create an eight-member Board of Elections and Ethics divided along party lines. Appointments to the board were traditionally overseen by the state's governors before lawmakers began taking steps in the past two years to reduce the governor's role in the process.

The amendment was opposed by all living governors, both Republican and Democrat.

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Tuesday's vote came after a legal battle between Republican legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper over the board. The state Supreme Court struck down a 2017 law establishing a politically divided eight-member board because it took executive authority from governors.

Filling judicial vacancies

Voters also dumped a drive by state legislators to gain the dominant role in picking judges when seats are vacant, a move that would have undercut a governor's powers.

They rejected a proposal to change the state constitution in ways that would have diminished the governor's authority to fill judicial vacancies.

The amendment was opposed by all living governors, both Republican and Democrat.

The amendment also would have allowed replacement judges to stay in their appointed jobs for four years and get established. Judges who fill vacant seats now can serve only until the next election, meaning two years or less.

The change also could have weakened gubernatorial powers because governors wouldn't be able to veto legislation filling a judicial vacancy, giving lawmakers a way to push through new issues.

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With 93 percent of precincts counted, here's how the amendments were faring: