A Federal Court Enters Consent Order That Requires North Carolina To Fix Inaccurate Voter Lists
Today, the United States Department of Justice announced that a federal court entered a consent order that remedies North Carolina’s failure to maintain accurate voting lists in violation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). The resolution of the case is another step toward achieving the mandate in President Trump’s Executive Order 14248 “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” to ensure that all elections are held in compliance with federal laws the prevent illegal voting, unlawful discrimination, and other formers of fraud, error, or suspicion.
On May 27th, the DOJ filed this lawsuit alleging that North Carolina was in violation of HAVA’s mandate to require on the voter registration form key identifying information like a driver’s license number or the last four digits of social security number. When the lawsuit was filed, it was estimated that at least 100,000 voters did not have the required identifying information in North Carolina’s registration rolls.
“Unsuccessful intervenors showed breathtaking hubris when they made alarmist accusations against the Department of Justice, and yet claimed credit for the very relief that the Department actively pursued in the complaint,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Nevertheless, we are pleased with the progress North Carolina has made and will continue to make as it cleans up its registration rolls, as required by federal law.”
The Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section enforces the civil provisions of federal statutes that protect the integrity of the vote, including the Voting Rights Act, National Voter Registration Act, Help America Vote Act, and the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.
Since before the lawsuit was filed, the now Republican-led State Board of Elections launched a Registration Repair project to help voters fix their registrations that lacked the correct information. So far the project has helped fix about 22% of the faulty registrations.
“Even before the U.S. Department of Justice filed this lawsuit, I had made it a priority to come into compliance with the Help America Vote Act and ensure that all individuals on our voter rolls are properly registered,” said Sam Hayes, executive director of the State Board of Elections. “I applaud the 100 county boards of elections and State Board staff, who have worked diligently on this project. In less than three months, we have reduced the number of voters on the registration repair list by 22%. Our plan is working, and this number will continue to drop as more voters become aware of this effort and fix their registrations.”
The list of 100,000 registrations that failed to meet the identification standards required by federal law was a key part of the election protest filed by Jefferson Griffin after the 2024 election. At the time, the liberal media dismissed these are unserious. But lawsuit does show that there is a strong argument to be made that North Carolina was not in line with federal law. And so far, the repair project has only fixed around 22,000 ballots with tens of thousands unaddressed.
