Special to IFN
RALEIGH — From the start of 2023 through August 2024, county boards of elections in North Carolina removed more than 747,000 ineligible registration records from the state’s voter rolls.
That’s an average of more than 1,200 voter records removed from the voter list every single day during those 20 months. The county boards follow careful policies to ensure that only ineligible records are removed, not those of eligible voters.
Meanwhile, newly eligible voters are constantly being added to the registration rolls as the population increases. Currently, North Carolina has nearly 7.7 million registered voters.
Registrants can be removed from the rolls for many reasons, including:
♦ They moved, either to a different county or away from North Carolina.
♦ They spent two federal general elections in inactive status and didn’t respond to mailings from their county board of elections attempting to confirm their eligibility.
♦ They died.
♦ They were convicted of a felony and are serving a sentence, including probation, post-release supervision, or parole.
♦ They had a duplicate registration.
♦ They requested to be removed.
♦ They were the subject of a successful voter challenge.
♦ They are not a U.S. citizen.
Removals for lack of citizenship are not specifically coded into the elections database. 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.
These list maintenance processes and others, both to add and remove registration records, are prescribed by state and federal laws and detailed in the State Board’s North Carolina Voter Registration List Maintenance Guide (PDF). The county boards of elections follow careful practices to ensure that eligible voters are not removed in error.
“List maintenance is one of the primary responsibilities of election officials across North Carolina, and we take this responsibility seriously,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections. “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. As we conduct these processes, we also must comply with state and federal laws and be careful not to remove any eligible voters.”
Maintaining the voter registration list is an ongoing process, with the goal of having the most accurate voter rolls possible. The process evolves over time as election officials identify new ways of identifying potentially invalid or inaccurate registrations with available resources. However, due to several factors, there will always be such registrations that are not initially identified for removal or correction. For example, voters die every day, but official death records may not reach election officials until weeks later. And people move out of the state every day without canceling their North Carolina registration. Eventually, list maintenance processes catch up with those individuals, and they are removed from the rolls.
The mere presence of ineligible individuals on the rolls does not mean voter fraud will occur. Evidence shows that voting in the name of another is exceedingly rare in North Carolina. A comprehensive 2017 audit of the 2016 presidential election, in which nearly 4.8 million N.C. voters cast ballots, identified two cases in which family members voted in the place of a recently deceased loved one. See Post-Election Audit Report: 2016 General Election (PDF).
Additionally, the photo ID requirement in place for the 2024 general election makes it more difficult for any voter to vote in the name of another person, which is a felony. See Certain acts declared felonies (N.C.G.S. § 163-275(1)).
“We have extremely little evidence that individuals are voting in the names of others in North Carolina elections, and the voter photo ID requirement will help ensure this does not happen,” Brinson Bell said.
New List Maintenance Processes
In addition to routine list maintenance practices, election officials are working on new efforts aimed at maintaining more accurate voter rolls and removing ineligible registrants. The State Board instituted some new processes at the request of citizen activists and others due to changes to state law.
One such law change, which took effect July 1, requires clerks of superior court across the state to provide lists of voters who request to be excused from jury duty because they claimed they were not U.S. citizens. In August, the clerks provided that data to the State Board, which matched them with North Carolina’s voter rolls. Nine individuals matched statewide.
The State Board is in the process of checking those nine voters against state and federal databases to determine whether they have obtained citizenship. If that check does not show they are now citizens, the State Board will send them letters informing them of the agency’s findings and inviting them to cancel their registrations to comply with the law. It is a felony to register to vote or vote if you are not a U.S. citizen.
In North Carolina, numerous laws and processes work together to ensure that only qualified U.S. citizens cast ballots in elections. For more information, see How does North Carolina ensure that only U.S. citizens can vote?
Additionally, over the past couple years, at the urging of citizen activists, the State Board has initiated a series of automated data checks designed to correct data entry errors and other inaccuracies in the voter registration database. After conducting these automated checks, the State Board sends reports to the county boards, which include the following data:
♦ Duplicate voter registration numbers;
♦ Data entered into the wrong registration fields;
♦ Possible invalid voter birth years;
♦ Possible invalid voter registration dates; and
♦ Duplicate driver’s license numbers
The county boards then review and research these flagged records and take corrective action when warranted. In recent months, the State Board has conducted numerous training sessions for county boards of elections on these and other aspects of voter roll list maintenance.
New Voters Are Welcome
Just as ineligible voters are removed from the registration rolls every day, new eligible voters are also added to the rolls every day. People become eligible to vote by becoming of age (at least 18 years old by general Election Day), moving into the state, obtaining citizenship, or completing a felony sentence. And, of course, not all eligible citizens register to vote immediately upon becoming eligible. A presidential election year is when many such citizens decide to register.
Also, interest in voter registration is at its highest in the months leading up to a presidential election, when voter registration organizations ramp up their efforts to engage more North Carolinians in the electoral process.
As a growing state, North Carolina has seen a 4.3 percent increase in its registered voter population since the 2020 election.
“We welcome North Carolina’s newest voters and we are working to ensure they have a smooth experience at the polls this year,” said Brinson Bell. “For any North Carolina citizen who is not registered, now is the time to fill out their registration form.”
Eligible voters can register online to vote if they have a North Carolina driver’s license or other NCDMV identification. Otherwise, any voter can fill out a paper voter registration application, which can be printed from the State Board’s website: ncsbe.gov.
The voter registration deadline for the general election is October 11. If a person misses that deadline, they can still register and vote at any early voting site in their county during the early voting period: October 17 through November 2. A person cannot register on Election Day, however, which is Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. Voters can check their registration status online at the Voter Search tool.