RALEIGH — Following news that North Carolina has been issuing trucking licenses illegally to foreign individuals, N.C. State Auditor Dave Boliek issued a letter to the N.C. State Board of Elections last week asking it to investigate “voter registrations that list non-residential addresses.”
“Election integrity is a top priority of mine, and it will remain so as we work toward improving public confidence in North Carolina’s elections,” Boliek wrote in a social media post.
Boliek was given oversight and control over the State Board of Elections (NCSBE) last year by the General Assembly.
The letter, sent to NCSBE Chair Francis De Luca, addressed the progress made through the board’s Registration Repair project, which was put into place as part of a lawsuit settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
“I commend the State Board for action taken thus far, but there remains more to be done to address election integrity, which is why I am requesting the State Board initiate a statewide investigation into voter registrations that list non-residential addresses,” wrote Boliek.
Boliek’s letter requests that the board launch a statewide investigation into voter registrations that have nonresidential addresses (such as P.O. Boxes or general campus mail addresses not tied to specific dorms), which violate state law requiring a fixed physical residence address where a person lives and intends to return.
“A P.O. Box or campus mailbox is insufficient by itself,” Boliek wrote. “Results from the Registration Repair Search Tool show that in some cases, a higher education institution campus mail address — an address not linked to a specific dormitory — has been used by registrants as a residential address.
“While registrants subject to the Registration Repair Project are already required to correct their registration in order to cast a regular ballot, it is unclear how widespread an issue registrants using non-residential addresses as residential addresses is in North Carolina, prompting my request for an investigation.”
De Luca responded to Boliek on Jan. 13.
“The State Board is in full agreement with you that ensuring compliance with current state and federal election laws reinforces public confidence in North Carolina’s elections,” De Luca wrote. “Recent actions by the board have demonstrated as such. For example, under the leadership of Executive Director Sam Hayes, we have currently repaired nearly 33 percent of the 103,270 voters eligible under the Registration Repair Project, and that number is increasing daily.”
De Luca also said NCSBE has “directed staff to coordinate with each county’s Board of Elections to review voter registrations in their county that list what appear to be non-residential addresses as the physical residence address.”
“The State Board will also review the residential address format guidance concerning the North Carolina Voter Registration Application and explore the use of E-911 address validation for the purpose of address serviceability,” wrote De Luca.
De Luca also noted the board is continuing with its systems modernization efforts and thanked Boliek for his “leadership on the issue of election integrity.”
Last December, the board authorized Hayes to enter a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Homeland Security to use the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE for short, a long-standing federal system for identifying noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls that is also used by the state’s court system for jury vetting.
