Republicans seek removal of 225,000 people on NC voter rolls

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — For the second time in a matter of days, state and national Republicans sued the NC State Board of Elections, seeking to have more than 225,000 people removed from the voter rolls.

In this latest lawsuit , Republicans cite a complaint filed last October which said the board was in violation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) by using voter registration forms that did not require submission of a driver’s license or the last four digits of a social security number.

Republicans argue it’s “opening the door for non-citizens to vote”.

“The NCSBE has once again failed in its mandate to keep non-citizens off the voter rolls, fueling distrust and jeopardizing our elections,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said.

Patrick Gannon, a spokesman for the NC State Board of Elections, called the request to remove the names this close to the election “impossible” because of federal law that blocks such action within 90 days of an election. Mail-in ballots begin being sent to voters in early September.

Additionally, he says the lawsuit “overstates alleged problems with voter registrations”.

“This lawsuit asks for an impossible solution. Despite being aware of their alleged claims months ago, the plaintiffs have waited until two weeks before the start of voting to seek a court-ordered program to remove thousands of existing registered voters,” said Gannon. “The lawsuit is asking for a rapid-fire voter removal program that violates federal law.”

Republicans also propose requiring the affected voters to cast a provisional ballot pending confirmation of the required HAVA information.

Gannon also noted that voters will be asked to show photo ID to vote in the upcoming election.

This is the second lawsuit Republicans have filed related to election integrity matters, having previously accused the state board of failing to identify and remove non-citizens from the voter rolls, which Gannon said was false.

“The question is how many potential non-citizens or other people who shouldn’t be registered to vote are in that system? There’s really no way of knowing,” said Andy Jackson, who studies elections at the conservative John Locke Foundation. “It could be a very small number. It’s just a bit of a black box.”

House Democratic Leader Rep. Robert Reives issued a statement Tuesday blasting Republicans for bringing the cases.

“The same folks who try to rig our legislative and congressional elections with gerrymandered maps now want to rig our statewide elections by purging hundreds of thousands of voters from the voting rolls just weeks before a presidential election. Republicans are worried that their extreme candidates — Mark Robinson, Dan Bishop and Michele Morrow, to name a few — are unable to win a fair election. Through intimidation, chaos and even outright disenfranchisement, Republicans are undermining North Carolinians’ fundamental right to free and fair elections,” Reives said.

Jackson said there will be no “large-scale removal” between now and the election.

“I think the real cause for concern here is the fact that that exists, not the fact that somebody has pointed it out,” he said. “It would have been nice if this would have been (filed), like in the spring, rather than right before election time starts. But, there is an underlying problem that should be addressed.”

Melissa Price Kromm, who leads NC for the People Action, said she thinks these lawsuits seek to diminish voter confidence in the results of the election.

“They intend to use this litigation to amplify baseless conspiracy theories and come November use them to claim the election is being stolen,” she said. “What we should be doing for our democracy is ensuring that 100 percent of the eligible voters are actually voting, not creating false narratives, and frankly outright lies in destroying the confidence in our elections.”

North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton issued a statement accusing Republicans of attempting to disenfranchise voters.

“These Republican lawsuits are the latest in a series of disingenuous attempts to sow doubts about the integrity of the election system and to suppress voter turnout in the 2024 election,” he said in his statement. “Despite being well aware of the procedures the state Board of Elections maintains to keep our elections secure, the Republican Party waited until just days before voting begins in North Carolina to file yet another frivolous lawsuit attempting to burden North Carolinians’ right to vote.”

“North Carolina Democrats will remain relentless in our efforts to ensure that every eligible voter has the information they need to access the ballot box during the 2024 voting period and beyond,” Clayton continued in his statement.

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