DOJ sues N.C. State Board of Elections Over Potentially Federal Law Violations During Democrats' Tenure
Yesterday, the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the State of North Carolina and the North Carolina State Board of Elections. The complaint alleges that the Democrat-controlled State Board of Elections failed to follow federal law that requires voter registration to collect identifying information like the last four a social security number or a driver’s license.
Flashback: The North Carolina State Board of Elections was previously controlled by a Democrat majority, until the Court of Appeals enforced the state law that transferred appointment authority from the Governor to the State Auditor. The failure to follow the requirements for voter verification before registration was a key problem identified by Jefferson Griffin in his election complaint. At the time, the State Board claimed that they were following the law.
What the lawsuit alleges:
“Defendants have failed to maintain accurate lists in North Carolina’s computerized statewide voter registration in violation of Section 303(a)(5) of HAVA…. HAVA imposes ‘minimum requirements’ for the conduct of Federal elections, which allow the states to develop their own laws and procedures to fulfill the requirements to the extent that they are consistent with HAVA’s standards.”
The minimum standards are to match voter registrations with social security numbers, driver's license numbers, or some other unique identification.
“Before the 2024 Federal elections, North Carolina used a voter registration application that did not require applicants to provide the information required by Section 303(a). Although the application included fields for the applicant to provide their state driver’s license or Department of Motor Vehicles (“DMV”) number and the last four digits of their social security number, the fields were optional to complete.”
“Defendant State of North Carolina has recognized that it has not taken the actions necessary to achieve timely compliance with the requirements of Section 303(a) of HAVA.”
“Specifically, at a NCSBE meeting on November 28, 2023, NCSBE members and their legal counsel made the following admissions in response to the Administrative Complaint: Paul Cox, General Counsel for the NCSBE, stated, ‘Legal counsel agrees with the complaint that HAVA does require a registrant, a mail in registrant, to either provide their driver’s license number or their last four digits of their social security number. And only if they do not have one of those to check the box saying, ‘I do not have one’ and that will still allow them to register.’”
What They Are Saying:
“Accurate voter registration rolls are critical to ensure that elections in North Carolina are conducted fairly, accurately, and without fraud,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Department of Justice will not hesitate to file suit against jurisdictions that maintain inaccurate voter registration rolls in violation of federal voting laws.”
N.C. Senate Leader Phil Berger said, “It is far past time for the N.C. State Board of Elections to clean up the voter rolls. This is a commonsense way to increase voter confidence, and why I believe shifting the Board to the Auditor’s Office was the right thing for North Carolina.”
N.C. Democratic Chair Anderson Clayton said, “The DOJ lawsuit comes with no shock as we’ve seen Republicans complicit with stealing elections by throwing out military ballots! The Republican interpretation of HAVA (help americans vote act) is wrong and none of these changes to the voter registration process are required.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said, “Election integrity starts with clean voter rolls. Under President Trump, states are on notice: if you don’t remove ineligible voters from your lists, the DOJ is ready to take action. Thank you, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, for protecting the ballot.”
N.C. House Speaker Destin Hall said, “If we don’t have clean voter rolls, we don’t have fair elections. North Carolina must lead on election integrity. No excuses.”
