by WorldTribune Staff, June 1, 2025 Real World News
The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday sued the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) for allowing voters to register without proper identification.
The lawsuit states that the NCSBE is in violation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), a federal law that established minimum election administration standards, including a general requirement that those registering to vote must provide either a driver’s license or the last four digits of a Social Security number.
Individuals who failed to obtain the proper identification were “added to the State’s voter registration roll without the required information, and many of these voters remain on the registration rolls without it,” a Justice Department press release states.
"At issue in the Justice Department’s filing, as well as the Republican Party filings and similar challenges spearheaded by Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin, is the fact that the NCSBE use a confused registration document that did not signify that the accepted forms of identification were required to register, making some in the state believe it was optional," The Federalist reported on May 28.
Although concerns over the registrations were known since at least late 2023, the then-Democrat-run NCSBE "decided to do nothing about it and continue operating with hundreds of thousands of incomplete voter registrations. Despite multiple lawsuits, no court forced the NCSBE to resolve its error, despite many judges acknowledging the failure," the report noted.
"Those decisions ultimately ended in Griffin losing his bid for state Supreme Court."
Sam Hayes, the NCSBE’s new executive director, acknowledged that the board had failed to collect the proper information.
Hayes said in a statement: “We are still reviewing the complaint, 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.”
“Accurate voter registration rolls are critical to ensure that elections in North Carolina are conducted fairly, accurately, and without fraud,” Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon said. “The Department of Justice will not hesitate to file suit against jurisdictions that maintain inaccurate voter registration rolls in violation of federal voting laws.”
