HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — Pennsylvania State House Republican leaders renewed their calls Monday for a constitutional amendment requiring voters to show photo ID in order to vote in future elections.

“Voter ID is an easy way to ensure eligibility, not unlike the ID cards we all show at a doctor’s office or a bank,” said Rep. Thomas Kutz (R-Cumberland Co.), speaking alongside House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster Co.). “An ID is required for many of the things we buy and do.”

Democratic leaders again insisted such a requirement would suppress votes.

“The constitution grants rights. It doesn’t and shouldn’t take away rights,” said Elizabeth Rementer, press secretary for House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D-Montgomery). “Therefore, any attempt to disenfranchise voters through a constitutional amendment is a non-starter for House Democrats.”

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This Week in Pennsylvania

The difference this time, compared to past times both sides have made those arguments? The impact of a would-be amendment isn’t purely hypothetical, because a new analysis from North Carolina — where the parties made similar arguments for a decade before Republicans got their wish — at least partly settles the score.

The verdict: In short, both parties are largely wrong — or at least, greatly overstate the impact of voter photo ID requirements — based on the analysis by Steve Harrison, a political reporter at WFAE-90.7 FM, Charlotte’s public radio station.

But strategically, that could mean Pennsylvania Democrats are more wrong than Pennsylvania Republicans to oppose an ID requirement at all costs.

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Among about 1.8 million voters in North Carolina’s presidential primary election earlier this month — the state’s first statewide election since the photo ID requirement took effect — a total of 473 voters were rejected for not being able to present a valid photo ID.

Among those 473 voters, according to Harrison’s analysis:

• 174 were Republicans; 171 were Democrats

• At least 298 were white, at least 74 were Black and seven were multiracial

These numbers — by themselves, at least — support Republican claims that Democrats overstate the difficulty of showing photo ID in order to vote and the idea that members of racial groups are more likely to lack ID. (In fact, about four times as many white voters as Black voters were rejected because they lacked ID, even though only about three times as many white people voted in the election overall.)

“So at first glance, there was no real disparity in terms of who photo ID was impacting,” Harrison said.

On the other hand, Democrats have on their side analyses — including, Harrison said, a detailed audit of North Carolina’s 2016 presidential election — questioning Republican suspicions of widespread voter fraud.

“There were only one or two cases of in-person voter fraud — someone trying to vote twice or vote in someone else’s name, out of millions of ballots cast,” Harrison said. “So really a non-existent problem that photo ID is trying to solve.”

Harrison noted the limitations of the data: Just because only one or two known cases of fraud existed in 2016 doesn’t mean other cases couldn’t have existed. On the other hand, just because only 473 people were rejected for lacking photo ID doesn’t mean others might not have stayed home because they didn’t have ID or were confused.

Still, the analysis seems to dispel both parties’ worst fears.

Polls show a majority of Pennsylvanians agree with Republicans on the photo ID and would easily approve an amendment if given the chance to vote on one — just as North Carolinians did when given their opportunity — and some Pennsylvania House Democrats have previously indicated a willingness to put the question before voters.

Given that — and given the findings in North Carolina — Republicans might have the political edge regarding one thing they said Monday morning.

“A lot can happen if we get voter ID on as a constitutional amendment,” Cutler said. “If we work together to move a proven bipartisan proposal forward, perhaps that will be the first of many successes.”

Which, in turn, could actually be a strategic edge for Democrats, if they give ground on a major Republican priority, which the North Carolina experience suggests might be less of a practical problem for Democrats than they fret.

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