Members of the North Carolina Board of Elections are sworn into office on May 7, 2025. (Photo: Lynn Bonner/NC Newsline)
Voters whose names or birth dates don’t match ID numbers in the state registration file won’t automatically have to use provisional ballots after all, under revised instructions the state Board of Elections approved Monday.
The latest revisions to efforts to collect and validate government IDs come after Democrats on the state Board objected at its last meeting to the requirement that voters whose names or birth dates did not match identifiers in government databases would need to continually use provisional ballots until the mismatches were resolved.
The state Board of Elections is trying to collect driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers from voters who don’t have either of those identifiers connected to their names in the state voter registration database.
In some cases, voters may not have supplied the numbers. In other cases, misspelled names, transposed numbers in dates of birth, or changed names created data mismatches.
For example, if a woman registers before she’s married and again after she’s married with a different last name, her Social Security number won’t match to the new registration.
Letters have gone out to voters who apparently did not supply one of the required numbers, asking them for the information. If they haven’t supplied it by the time next time they vote, they’ll be asked to fill out a provisional ballot. The provisional voting application asks for one of those numbers.
People who supplied numbers that couldn’t be validated will vote regular ballots if they show an acceptable ID.
Under the plan, county election boards will review records for data errors. Beginning in January, letters will go out twice a year to voters whose ID numbers won’t validate, asking them for help figuring out why.
The US Department of Justice sued the state Board over the missing numbers. The state and the DOJ reached a settlement that District Judge Richard Myers II signed Monday.
As the Board unanimously approved the new instructions, members engaged in a wide-ranging discussion about whether enough was being done to cull noncitizen voters.
Board member Robert Rucho, a former Republican state senator, questioned whether someone should be allowed to vote using a utility bill.
The federal Help America Vote Act lists utility bills among the documents voters or new registrants can use to establish identity and residency. North Carolina law requires voters show a photo ID or fill out a form explaining why they don’t have one.
“I just don’t think that we’re doing what our responsibility requires us to do,” Rucho said.
NC State Board of Elections member Bob Rucho (Photo: Lynn Bonner/NC Newsline)A Canadian citizen was charged late last month with illegally registering to vote in North Carolina and voting in federal elections in 2022 and 2024.
Board member Jeff Carmon, a Democrat, said he hasn’t seen a widespread problem with noncitizen voting in his six years on the board, and told Rucho he shouldn’t have said staff wasn’t making a maximum effort. .
“What we’re doing is according to the law,” Carmon said.
“Maybe the law is insane,” Board Chairman Francis De Luca interjected.
Board member Stacy “Four” Eggers IV, a Republican, said there’s still interest in using the federal SAVE database to verify voters’ citizenship.
Elections officials are working with the US Department of Homeland Security on a memo “that would lay out the parameters of any potential data exchange with regard to the last four of Social Security,” said state Elections Director Sam Hayes.
Officials want to work with the state DMV to obtain full Social Security numbers, Hayes said.
A bill proposed by House Republicans would require voters to supply their full Social Security numbers when registering. Voting and privacy experts told NC Newsline that provision would violate federal privacy law.
The DVM, however, collects full Social Security numbers.
Hayes said lawmakers are working on legislation “that would compel that data sharing, and we’re certainly supportive of that as well.”
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