Trump administration sues North Carolina over its voter registration records

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Trump administration accused North Carolina’s election board on Tuesday of violating federal law by failing to ensure voter registration records of some applicants contained identifying numbers.

The Justice Department sued in federal court also asking a judge to force board officials to create a prompt method to obtain such numbers.

The department alleges that the state and the board aren’t complying with the 2003 Help America Vote Act after board officials provided a statewide voter registration form that didn’t make clear an applicant must provide either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. If an applicant lacks neither, the state must assign the person another unique number.

A previous edition of the state board, in which Democrats held a majority, acknowledged the problem in late 2023 after some voters complained. The board updated the form but declined to contact people who had registered to vote since 2004 in time for the 2024 elections so they could fill in the missing numbers.

According to the lawsuit, the board indicated that such information would be accumulated on an ad hoc basis as voters appeared at polling places. It’s unclear exactly how many voters’ records still lack identifying numbers.

Lawyers from the department’s Civil Rights Division contend the board must act more aggressively. They want a judge to give the state 30 days to contact voters with records that don’t comply with federal law, obtain an identifying number for each and add that to the electronic list.

The litigation follows similar efforts by the Republican Party and a state GOP candidate to address the registration records for the 2024 election.

The lawsuit also referred to President Donald Trump’s broad executive order on elections in March to “guard against illegal voting, unlawful discrimination, and other forms of fraud, error, or suspicion.”

“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 said in a news release. “The Department of Justice will not hesitate to file suit against jurisdictions that maintain inaccurate voter registration rolls in violation of federal voting laws.”

This month, the board’s composition changed to reflect a 2024 law approved by the GOP-dominated General Assembly that shifted the board’s appointment powers from the now-Democratic governor to Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek. A previous 3-2 Democratic majority is now a 3-2 Republican majority.

The new iteration of the board sounds open to embrace the Justice Department’s wishes.

Executive Director Sam Hayes said late Tuesday the lawsuit 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.”

Local elections start in September.

The state and national GOP last year sued over the lack of identifying numbers, which they estimated could affect 225,000 registrants. But federal judges declined to make changes so close to the general election.

The issue also was litigated after Election Day as part of formal protests filed by the Republican candidate for a seat on the state Supreme Court who challenged about 60,000 ballots he contended were cast by registrants who lacked an identifying number.

The election board said earlier this year at least roughly half of those voters actually did provide an identifying number.

State appeals courts criticized the board’s handling of the registration records but ultimately ruled the challenged ballots had to remain in the final election tally. Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs defeated Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin by 734 votes out of over 5.5 million ballots cast.