‘Defendants have failed to maintain accurate lists in North Carolina’s computerized statewide voter registration,’ the lawsuit states.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on May 28 sued North Carolina’s election board, alleging officials violated federal law by failing to obtain certain details for people who registered to vote.
State officials have acknowledged violations of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 but took only limited actions to prevent future violations, according to
the lawsuit.
That has left a “significant number of voters” registered without a driver’s license number or other identifying number, the DOJ said in the suit.
HAVA prohibits states from accepting applications for voter registration unless the applicant provides a driver’s license number or the last four digits of his or her Social Security number. For people without a license or Social Security number,
states “shall assign the applicant a number which will serve to identify the applicant for voter registration purposes,” the law says.
“Accurate voter registration rolls are critical to ensure that elections in North Carolina are conducted fairly, accurately, and without fraud,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division,
said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will not hesitate to file suit against jurisdictions that maintain inaccurate voter registration rolls in violation of federal voting laws.”
The filing cited President Donald Trump’s recent executive order
directing officials to enforce federal laws on voter registration and illegal voting.
Sam Hayes, executive director of the state board, said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times that the board was reviewing the lawsuit, “but the failure to collect the information required by HAVA has been well documented.”
He added, “Rest assured that I am committed to bringing North Carolina into compliance with federal law.”
The state had not been requiring applicants to list a driver’s license number or Social Security number or attest they had neither, according to an
administrative complaint filed on Oct. 6, 2023.
During a
meeting shortly after that complaint was filed, a lawyer for the board said that the board’s counsel agreed with the complaint that HAVA “does require a registrant, a mail-in registrant, to either provide their driver’s license number or their last four digits of their social security number, and only if they do not have one of those to check the box saying, ‘I do not have one’ and that will still allow them to register.”
The lawyer said at the time that the state was revamping its voter registration form.
The board approved a motion acknowledging that a violation of the law could occur as a result of the application form’s “failing to require an applicant to provide an identification number or indicate that they do not possess such a number,” North Carolina State Board of Elections Chair Alan Hirsch
said in a filing.
The board declined a request to contact voters who did not have listed driver’s licenses or Social Security numbers because that action “is not specifically authorized” in the law, and because those voters would not have been allowed to vote without otherwise providing their identity.
The board also said it would not tell county boards of elections to refuse to accept voter registration forms that were missing the required information and currently in circulation. Officials said they could comply with the law by instructing the boards to require applicants to provide the required information before processing the applications.
“Defendants have declined to take sufficient steps to cure their continuing violations” of HAVA, the new suit states.
The DOJ is asking the court to declare the North Carolina State Board of Elections in violation of the law and prohibit it from remaining in noncompliance with the statute.
The court should also order the board to develop a plan within 30 days to remedy the violations, DOJ officials said.
