No photo ID will be required to vote in the March primary.

State Board of Election Executive Director Karen Brinson said in a video released Monday that North Carolina voters will not have to produce photo ID in order to vote on March 3, or during the two weeks of early voting preceding the March 3 primary. Though the photo ID requirement was set to go into effect this year, on Dec. 31, a federal judge in Winston-Salem blocked the requirement. The injunction will remain in effect until further order from the court, stated a press release from the state BOE.

In 2018, North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring photo ID to vote, which was passed by the state legislature, vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper, then overridden in December 2018. A lawsuit was filed in response to the legislation by the state chapter of the NAACP and several local chapters of the organization and will be heading to trial. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs issued the injunction that prevents North Carolina from implementing the law, citing “Plaintiffs have demonstrated that, if allowed to go into effect, S.B. 824 would likely work irreparable harm against them and, more broadly, minority voters in North Carolina.”

According to Beaufort County Board of Elections Director Kellie Hopkins, local BOE staff has been working for the past two years to prepare for the photo ID requirement.

“We have been in preparation to have ID implemented this year, so we have redone forms, absentee ballots; we’ve been advertising. The Board of Elections has been providing free IDs here since February,” Hopkins said. “We’ve done all this preparation and we should, because at least we’ll have it done when (the law goes into effect).”

Primaries up for decision in March include Republican candidates for governor, attorney general, commissioner of insurance, secretary of state; Democratic candidates for commissioner of agriculture, commissioner of labor and state treasurer; both parties’ candidates for lieutenant governor, state auditor and superintendent of public instruction, as well as candidates for President and U.S. Senate on the federal level.

One-stop voting begins March 3.

Hopkins said she did not know if the voter ID issue would be resolved by the general election in November.

“I don’t know. I would hope so. I would think maybe the courts would move to that,” Hopkins said.