Trump DOJ targets North Carolina for shaky voter registration

With public trust in elections teetering on the brink, President Donald Trump's Department of Justice targeted North Carolina's voter roll failures over a long-ignored alleged discrepancy.

In March, the president signed an executive order to preserve and protect America's elections. In that action, he noted that states must maintain accurate voter rolls under the Help America Vote Act.

'We are still reviewing the complaint, but the failure to collect the information required by HAVA has been well documented.'

On Tuesday, the DOJ moved to carry out Trump's commitment by filing a lawsuit against the state and the North Carolina State Board of Elections, claiming that the parties had violated HAVA.

The lawsuit argued that North Carolina failed to require voter applicants to provide their driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number on the state's voter registration form. The state is mandated to assign a unique number for individuals who do not provide either. However, that allegedly did not always happen.

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"Voters were then added to the State's voter registration roll without the required information, and many of these voters remain on the registration rolls without it," the DOJ stated in Tuesday's press release.

A previous state elections board with a Democratic majority admitted the issue in 2023 and revised the form. However, the board failed to reach out to voters registered since 2004 to correct missing identification numbers before the 2024 elections.

The DOJ's lawsuit claimed that the missing information was instead collected as voters appeared at polling locations. It is unclear how many records still have not been updated.

The Trump administration has requested that the judge allow North Carolina a 30-day deadline to form a plan to update the missing information.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division stated, "Accurate voter registration rolls are critical to ensure that elections in North Carolina are conducted fairly, accurately, and without fraud."

"The Department of Justice will not hesitate to file suit against jurisdictions that maintain inaccurate voter registration rolls in violation of federal voting laws," he added.

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This month, Republicans took control of the elections board.

North Carolina State Board Executive Director Sam Hayes responded to the DOJ's lawsuit, stating that he was "only recently notified of this action."

"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," Hayes said.

He added that the board updated the state's voter registration form in January 2024.

Hayes stated, "The State Board and county boards of elections will work diligently to ensure all voters are properly registered and have provided the necessary personal information to comply with state and federal laws."

Jay DeLancy, founder of the Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina, told Blaze News, "There are over half a million voters in North Carolina that are registered without a driver's license or a Social Security number."

"We've been trying to get the legislature to fix it," he stated, adding that the issue was "a nonpartisan problem."

"It's extremely gratifying to see that the courts are finally going to force North Carolina election officials to do their job, and … follow the law. It was something that we couldn't get it done," DeLancy said. "And now the Trump DOJ has stepped in, we cannot be happier."

Editor's note: This article has been updated after publication to include comments from Jay DeLancy, founder of the Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina.

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