Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against North Carolina for Voter Registration Issues

The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against the state of North Carolina and its election officials, claiming they have violated federal law by not keeping accurate voter registration records and failing to take adequate actions to correct their mistakes.

The 19-page complaint references section 303 of the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which mandates states to maintain a “computerized statewide voter registration list.” The act also requires that states ensure a voter is not registered unless they provide a driver’s license number, the last four digits of their Social Security number, or, if these are unavailable, a “unique identifying number” issued by the state. State officials must also ensure that fraud is not occurring.

“Defendants have failed to maintain accurate lists in North Carolina’s computerized statewide voter registration in violation of Section 303(a)(5) of HAVA and the sacred trust that the people of the State of North Carolina have put in them to ensure the fairness and integrity of elections for Federal office in the state, necessitating this litigation,” lawyers for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division wrote in their Tuesday filing.

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The state and the North Carolina State Board of Elections sent prospective voters a voter registration form that “did not explicitly require a voter to provide a driver’s license or the last four digits of a social security number,” the DOJ argues, and yet a “significant number” of voters who did not provide this necessary information were added to the voter rolls.

In addition to forcing them to follow HAVA, the DOJ wants the federal court in the Eastern District of North Carolina’s Western Division to order the defendants to create a plan to “remedy” their alleged violations of HAVA within 30 days of the order.

This plan, according to the Trump administration, should include contacting all the registered North Carolina voters who do not meet the HAVA requirements, giving those who need it an unique identifying number — then filing with the court a sworn certification that all records are in compliance and updating all voter registration and training materials for election officials.

The lawsuit comes in the wake of a similar one filed by North Carolina Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin, who challenged his 734-vote defeat last November to incumbent state Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs. Griffin argued the ballots of roughly 60,000 voters were ineligible.

What resulted was a drawn-out process of challenges and appeals that lasted months, with Griffin finally conceding defeat earlier this month two days after a federal judge ruled the contested ballots must remain in the final vote count.

The NCSBE acknowledged the problem with its voter registration form in 2023 after a citizen complained, according to The Associated Press, and updated the form. However, the agency reportedly did not contact the affected persons for them to provide the necessary numbers in time for the 2024 election.

The NCSBE, its executive director Sam Hayes, its five board members, and the state itself are listed as the defendants. The agency’s previous executive director since 2019, Karen Brinson Bell, was ousted on May 7 as part of a major overhaul after a new Republican majority took control.

The new NCSBE chairman, Francis De Luca, one of the defendants in the DOJ lawsuit, said at the time that his mission was that “we get things so we have fair elections, make voting easy and make sure we follow the law. And make sure there’s trust in the election system.”

In response to Tuesday’s lawsuit, Hayes said it was being reviewed, “but the failure to collect the information required by HAVA has been well documented. Rest assured that I am committed to bringing North Carolina into compliance with federal law,” per NC Newsline.