Elections board addresses missing voter information

The plan includes three rounds of mailings to voters

An election worker reads names from a list of more than 60,000 people whose votes were challenged by Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin in January. The North Carolina State Board of Elections unveiled a plan to address missing voter information. (Chris Seward / AP Photo)

RALEIGH — The North Carolina State Board of Elections rolled out a plan to address missing information in voter records at its meeting June 24.

The plan, presented by the NCSBE Executive Director Sam Hayes, would collect incomplete registration information from certain voters to comply with an N.C. Court of Appeals decision, as well as resolving outstanding lawsuits regarding the missing information.

Hayes said a previous voter registration form did not make it clear that the driver’s license number and the last four digits of a Social Security number were required.

“As a result, we’ve got a number of folks out there, the numbers vary, but it’s certainly a large amount,” Hayes said of registrations missing required Help America Vote Act (HAVA) data. He added that number could be greater than 200,000.

The form in question and the missing data were the subject of complaints filed last year by the NCGOP, the Republican National Committee and later state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin.

“The bottom line is that the state board has drawn multiple legal challenges as a result of those registration deficiencies,” Hayes said before referencing the latest lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the order from the state Court of Appeals.

Hayes said the voter registration form has been corrected and that he’s had discussions with the DOJ to bring North Carolina “into full compliance with the law.”

“We hope at the end of the day to enter into a consent decree with not just the Department of Justice but the plaintiffs in these other lawsuits as well,” Hayes said.

Earlier this month, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against the NCSBE over the missing voter information, citing HAVA violations.

Hayes’ presentation included three mailings to voters to correct the missing data issues.

The first mailing would go out in July to approximately 98,000 voters with missing data who registered after HAVA’s 2004 effective date. Until they update their records, those voters will have to vote provisionally.

The second mailing would go out sometime this summer to around 96,000 voters who “complied with HAVA” but have no driver’s license number or Social Security data in their records. Hayes’ presentation referred to those who showed an alternate HAVA-compliant ID and said those individuals will continue to vote regular ballots.

A third mailing after the first two are completed would repeat the first mailing for those voters who did not respond.

County elections boards will be reviewing their active voter databases to identify records with incorrect registration dates and the missing HAVA registration information, including looking for instances when a voter provided the data but the county did not enter it, according to Hayes.

Additionally, the presentation indicated that for future elections, “in-person voters who lack required info on their record must vote provisionally” and that the NCSBE will create a related “flag” in pollbooks to let poll workers know when a person would have to vote provisionally. Such voters would have to provide the missing data for their ballot to count.

Similar details about the plan were included in a post-meeting press release issued by the NCSBE, including county boards being required to train poll workers accordingly.

“The State Board of Elections is acting to correct numerous errors which have been identified for years as issues,” NCGOP Chairman Jason Simmons said in a statement. “This is an encouraging step towards restoring trust in state elections.”

The North Carolina Democratic Party has yet to issue a statement on the plan.

Another item of note on the agenda included approval of appointments to all 100 county boards of elections.

“We appreciate the willingness of these new county board members to serve the citizens of our state,” said Hayes in a press statement. “Together, we will ensure that our elections are accessible, secure, and conducted with integrity.”

Those appointed serve two-year terms that began June 25 and will end July 19, 2027.

Only five boards still have vacancies that will be addressed at the next NCSBE board meeting.

Earlier that day, N.C. Auditor Dave Boliek announced his county board of elections chair picks, which have been updated on NCSBE’s website under the June 24 meeting folder. A comparison of the previous county board chairs with Boliek’s picks shows a change in chairs for all 100 counties.

About A.P. Dillon 1691 Articles
A.P. Dillon is a North State Journal reporter located near Raleigh, North Carolina. Find her on Twitter: @APDillon_