RALEIGH — A report by a nonpartisan election integrity group has released a report giving the N.C. State Board of Elections a grade of “C” for its 2024 elections administration.
The score was assigned “due to the multiple failures that undermine the confidence of voters in North Carolina,” and include a performance summary page showing how the score was compiled.
The Fair Election Fund (FEF) report on the N.C. State Board of Elections (NCSBE) highlights several issues, including the NCSBE’s initial denial of ballot access to third-party candidate Dr. Cornel West, despite meeting requirements, a decision which was later overturned by a federal court.
FEF’s 12-page report cites the NCSBE’s dismissal of a N.C. Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin’s elections protests involving thousands of allegedly invalid ballots.
The ballots challenged in the N.C. Supreme Court race included 60,273 without required registration information and 264 “never residents,” meaning the person has never lived in the state. Also, there were over 5,500 ballots that lacked eligibility of various types, including a number submitted by overseas voters without photo ID, which were challenged.
Additionally, the report criticizes the NCSBE for failing to collect legally required voter information, such as driver’s licenses or Social Security numbers, from over 225,000 voters.
The N.C. Supreme Court legal challenges have wound their way through various state and federal courts, with the N.C. Supreme Court ruling in mid-April that the over 60,000 ballots challenged will remain counted. The future of the remaining ballots challenged currently is in the hands of U.S. Chief District Judge Richard Myers for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
On Election night, Griffin led his Democratic opponent Associate Justice Allison Riggs by over 10,000 votes. After provisional ballots and recounts were conducted, Riggs led Griffin by 734 votes out of the over 5.5 million cast in the race.
Unlike Griffin, who was elected to the N.C. Court of Appeals, Riggs has never been elected to a judicial post and was appointed by former Governor Roy Cooper to the state appeals court and subsequently elevated her to the N.C. Supreme Court less than a year later.
The evaluation of the NCSBE is part of a series by FEF assessing election administration in battleground states, according to the group’s press release accompanying the report. FEF also said their report “relied on the nonpartisan tenants proposed by the Carter-Baker Report,” and its “over 80 recommendations” for improving U.S. elections.
FEF announced its formation in May 2024 with a goal “to expose and stop corruption in our elections in order to restore trust in our democratic process.” The group has signaled it will spend more than $5 million to “shine a light on fraud and abuse” in elections as well as supporting whistleblowers and others coming forward to report election integrity violations.
North State Journal requested a comment from the NCSBE.
“We are not familiar with this organization or its credentials in understanding election administration or election law in North Carolina,” NCSBE Communications Director Patrick Gannon wrote in an email response. “However, we understand that the organization may be linked to partisan efforts by certain national political figures, based upon reporting from The New York Times.”
“Additionally, the one-sided report mentions only issues that have been politically contentious in North Carolina,” Gannon wrote.
Gannon said the report “neglects all the great work done by nonpartisan election officials in recent years in North Carolina,” and included the following list:
- Conducting extremely successful elections through a pandemic (2020) and a deadly hurricane (2024). These are two of the highest turnout elections in NC history (75.4% in 2020 and 73.7% in 2024).
- In 2024, election officials served the most voters in state history – more than 5.7 million – despite Hurricane Helene’s impact on Western North Carolina.
- Successfully implementing the state’s voter photo ID requirement
- Launching an absentee ballot request portal, which allows military and overseas voters, as well as visually impaired voters, to request and return their ballots electronically
- Partnering with the NCDMV to create a system allowing voters to register to vote and update existing registrations online
- Publishing a new and improved NCSBE.gov
FEF’s report was issued around the same time N.C. State Auditor Dave Boliek announced the names that will make up the NCSBE’s new board.
Boliek appointed Republican members Stacy “Four” Eggers, who served on the most recent board; former state Sen. Bob Rucho; and Francis De Luca, a former president of the Civitas Institute.
Kept on the board are Democrats Siobhan Millen and Jeff Carmon. The board’s current chair Alan Hirsch, also a Democrat, is now off the board.
