Photo ID Needed Now To Ship a Package at the Local UPS

A sudden change of rules at a local business -- and at the polls

Today I went into my local UPS store with a small box of bed linens I was returning to a company in Missouri. The clerk briefly looked at the addresses on the package and asked to see my driver’s license. I was stunned.

“Why?” I asked. She just stared at me with a big smile. “Why do you have to see my ID?”

“So I know it’s you,” she said.

“Seriously, why do I have to show my ID just to ship a package?”

Hesitating, still smiling, she said, “People send things they shouldn’t.”

“This never happened to me here before. When did this start?”

“Since I’ve been here.” She didn’t volunteer to say when that was. I guess I haven’t shipped a package there since Christmas.

So I gave her my driver’s license and she put about 45 seconds worth of information into the computer. That’s a long time.

“What do people try to send?” I asked.

Looking hard at me with a big smile, she said, “Alcohol… What’s in this package?”

“Bed linens,” I said. She must have believed me (she had proof it was me) because she took my money and gave me a receipt.

Driving out of the parking lot, it occurred to me that a new state law says that this November at the polls I’ll need to show someone my photo ID, in a county where I’ve been voting for 29 years.

But what if a photo ID isn’t enough, or will I need one if I have to vote early or by mail? What if the rules change at the last minute?

Then I thought, this must be how many of my fellow citizens have felt for years, standing at the door to the polls in front of someone who has a big smile and the power to say, “Sorry, you don’t qualify to vote here.”

New voter ID rules in NC for municipal elections in North Carolina