RALEIGH — The North Carolina State Board of Elections has removed close to 750,000 ineligible voters from its rolls, according to the agency’s Sept. 26 press release.
The voter records removed fall between January 2023 and August 2024, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE). This large-scale removal, averaging more than 1,200 voter records per day over 20 months, is part of the state’s ongoing efforts to maintain accurate voter registration lists.
There are eight reasons for the removal of a voter from the rolls:
- Relocation: Voters who moved either to a different county or out of North Carolina.
- Inactivity: Those who spent two federal general elections in inactive status without responding to county board mailings.
- Death
- Felony conviction: Individuals serving sentences, including probation, post-release supervision, or parole.
- Duplicate registration
- Voter request
- Successful voter challenge
- Noncitizenship
The NCSBE said the removals were conducted by county boards of elections following policies to ensure only ineligible records are removed while preserving the registrations of eligible voters.
The largest category of removals was for voters who moved within the state, resulting in duplicate registrations. This was followed by removals of voters who remained in inactive status for two federal general elections and did not respond to mailings from their county board of elections attempting to confirm their eligibility.
The NCSBE provided a detailed breakdown of the reasons for these removals and the number of records removed for each.
- Moved within state (duplicate registrations): 289,902
- Two federal elections in inactive status: 246,311
- Deceased: 130,688
- Moved out of state: 31,242
- Duplicate/Merged duplicate: 26,939
- Felony conviction: 18,883
- Request from voter: 2,329
- Other reasons: 980
The removal breakdown list did not include a category for noncitizens or individuals in the country illegally, but the NCSBE offered an explanation that its system does not have that coded in its system yet.
“Removals for lack of citizenship are not specifically coded into the elections database,” the NCSBE press release says. “Any removals for this reason may be coded as “Request from voter” or “Other.” Due to a recent law going into effect requiring the identification of registrants excused from jury service due to noncitizenship, the State Board is working to code this specific removal reason into the database.”
North State Journal asked the NCSBE about the total number of noncitizens potentially rolled into those two categories.
NCSBE Communications Director Patrick Gannon did say in an email to North State Journal on voluntary removals that, “If someone voluntarily requests to cancel their voter registration, they typically would not inform a county board of elections why they are doing so.” He also reiterated the information in the press release related to non-citizen removals were not currently coded in their system yet.
Gannon also referred back to the press release citing nine non-citizen individuals statewide disqualified as jurors that had a match on the voter rolls.
Per the press release, the NCSBE is checking out those nine voters to determine if they are citizens or not. If they are found not to be U.S. citizens, the board will inform them and cancel their registrations as it is felony to register for voting or to vote if not a U.S. citizen.
“List maintenance is one of the primary responsibilities of election officials across North Carolina, and we take this responsibility seriously,” said NCSBE Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell.
She also addressed concerns about potential misinformation, stating, “Unfortunately, there is a lot of false information out there about our voter rolls and the efforts we undertake to keep them up to date.”
The press release stressed that county boards follow careful practices to avoid removing eligible voters in error. However, it acknowledged that due to several factors, there will always be some invalid or inaccurate registrations that are not immediately identified for removal or correction. For instance, there can be a delay between a voter’s death and when official records reach election officials.
With regard to potential voter fraud, the NCSBE said evidence shows voting in the name of another person is “exceedingly rare” in North Carolina and cited a comprehensive audit of the 2016 presidential election identified only two cases where family members voted in place of recently deceased loved ones. Additionally, implementation of a photo ID requirement put into law by the Republican legislature is expected to be a deterrent to such attempts.
New processes for voter roll maintenance to improve accuracy were included in the NCSBE press release, such as a new law requiring clerks of superior court to provide lists of individuals who request to be excused from jury duty because they claimed noncitizenship. The NCSBE’s release says that this data was matched against North Carolina’s voter rolls in August, resulting in nine matches statewide.
The use of the jury duty requirement is the subject of a pending lawsuit against the NCSBE filed by the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party.
The lawsuit claims the NCSBE had refused to implement Section 44 before the Nov. 5 election despite the law taking effect July 1. The RNC’s press release on the lawsuit said “NCSBE has made zero effort to implement the law before the November election.”
“Assertions in the lawsuit that the State Board is refusing to comply with Section 44 of Session Law 2023-140 are categorically false,” a statement from the NCSBE said in response to the claims. “We ask that the NCGOP and RNC immediately rescind their press releases on this topic, as they will undermine voter confidence on an entirely false premise.”
The State Board has initiated a series of automated data checks to correct data entry errors and other inaccuracies in the voter registration database. These checks flag issues such as duplicate voter registration numbers, data entered into wrong fields, potentially invalid birth years or registration dates, and duplicate driver’s license numbers.
Despite the substantial number of removals, North Carolina continues to see growth in its registered voter population. The state has experienced a 4.3% increase in registered voters since the 2020 election, according to NCSBE.
The state’s voter registration numbers show more than 7.666 million registered voters as of this month compared to over 6.583 million 10 years ago.
The NCSBE encourages eligible citizens to register, providing information on online and paper registration methods. The voter registration deadline for the 2024 general election is Oct. 11, with options for same-day registration during the early voting period from Oct. 17 to Nov. 2.
