After more than a decade of court battles and legislative jousting over voting rules, North Carolina this month held its first general election under its new voter ID law.

And unlike the pitched battles of the past, it felt like a fight that had largely been fought to a draw, with a more muted ID requirement, and very few ballots that were disqualified.

In 2013, when North Carolina’s Republican-run State Legislature first required voters to pull out a photo ID card before casting a ballot, it stirred a hornet’s nest of protest that the real goal was to keep nonwhite, mostly Democratic, voters from the polls.

Years of litigation followed. When a federal court struck down the law in 2016, the opinion highlighted the ID requirement as one of several provisions that targeted Black voters “with almost surgical precision.”

This month, voters cast 5.7 million ballots under a new Republican-written voter ID law. How things have changed: Now, North Carolina’s law is being criticized by some on the right as too weak and porous, though the vote went smoothly.

The law — approved in 2018 but stalled by court battles until last year — requires both in-person and mail voters to show proof of identity. That departs from most laws that require an ID only at the polls.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.