A group of civil rights organizations announced Sept. 5 they are challenging a lawsuit by the Republican Party, which seeks to deem 225,000 registered voters in North Carolina ineligible to vote.
The lawsuit impacts any voter in North Carolina who does not have a Social Security number and a driver’s license — or other DMV document — on file with the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE).
Election officials note that this could be a fault of human error, and that such documents were not required before 2005, when the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) took effect.
In its lawsuit filed Aug. 23, the RNC stated that the NCSBE allowed over a quarter million people to register to vote with registration forms that failed to collect required identification information. The RNC deemed it a violation of HAVA.
“Because of these errors, the North Carolina voter rolls are potentially replete with ineligible voters — including possible non-citizens — all of whom are now registered to vote,” declared the RNC in its lawsuit.
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a press statement: “The NCSBE has once again failed in its mandate to keep non-citizens off the voter rolls, fueling distrust and jeopardizing our elections. We are committed to the basic principle – and commonsense law – that only Americans decide American elections.”
Voting by undocumented immigrants is extremely rare, reports the Brennan Center. In a survey of 23.5 million ballots, the organization found only 30 fraudulent votes, just 0.0001 percent of the votes cast. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, also reports that non-citizens do not vote in detectable numbers. Non-citizens who attempt to vote can be criminally prosecuted and deemed ineligible for citizenship.
Motion to Intervene
The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, along with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Southern Coalition for Social Justice filed a motion to intervene Sept. 4, on behalf of the North Carolina NAACP, and Sailor Jones, associate director of Common Cause, North Carolina, who is directly affected by the RNC lawsuit. The NAACP notes that Black voters would be disproportionately impacted, should the RNC’s lawsuit prevail.
In an interview with Ethnic Media Services, Jones said he has voted in North Carolina for decades. But he re-registered to vote on July 8, 2022, after changing residences. Neither his social security number or his driver’s license show up in voter files, thus he would be deemed ineligible to vote, should the RNC prevail. Jones said he provided his driver’s license when voting in the 2024 primary election, and has provided his Social Security number to election officials in the past.
The RNC’s ‘Desperate Move’
“Now I am one of hundreds of thousands eligible North Carolina voters whom extremists want to deny their freedom to cast a ballot just days before voting begins in our state,” he said, characterizing the lawsuit as a “desperate move.”
The East Carolina University Center for Survey Research released a poll Sept. 3, which showed Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump in a one-point lead against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Presidential candidate. Dr. Peter Francia, Director of the East Carolina University Center for Survey Research said in an interview with CBS17 that the razor-thin lead was well within the 3 point margin of error.
Jones said he expects more North Carolinians coming to the polls to rebuke the Republican Party’s extreme policies, including restricting abortion access, new cuts to public education, and penalties for publicly protesting.
American Basketball Player Ineligible to Vote
“While these extremists may have wanted North Carolina voters to be discouraged by this latest political ploy, they forgot we live in a state known for breaking voting records regardless of the barriers in place,” he said.
Jones provided to EMS the full list of a quarter million people who would be deemed ineligible to vote. (The list can be searched by downloading the spreadsheet. While the list has over 750,000 names, only those missing both a driver’s license and a Social Security number would be potentially ineligible to vote).
Jones noted that one of his favorite basketball players, University of North Carolina’s Armando Bacot, is on the list. “When you mess with college basketball in North Carolina, you mess with all of us,” said Jones.
Bacot, 24, was born in Richmond, Virginia; he is Black.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections has not commented on the lawsuit. It does encourage people to check its database to see if they are still actively registered to vote. People who are listed as inactive can re-register up to 30 days prior to the election. For voters who lack a Social Security number or driver’s license, North Carolinians can submit a photo ID, along with a utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows a name and address.
