State elections board rebukes Republicans over registered voter lawsuit

The North Carolina State Board of Elections denied claims made by state and national Republicans in a Thursday lawsuit about non-citizens on registered voter lists, calling them "categorically false."

2024-08-22

The North Carolina Republican Party and the Republican National Committee filed the lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court, demanding the state elections board identify and remove non-U.S. citizens from its registered voters list before the November general election.

A new state law, which went into effect on July 1, says that anyone who asserts lack of citizenship as a basis for refusing to serve on a jury can be removed from the registered voters list.

Non-citizens aren't allowed to vote in any North Carolina’s elections, including federal races. That prohibition is in the state constitution.

But the state board said it has already compared lists of registered voters with those who have been excused from jury duty because they claimed not to be U.S. citizens. The board said it found nine such individuals and is investigating their citizenship status.

If they are found not to be citizens, the State Board will "invite them ... to cancel their registrations to comply with the law," the board said in a statement.

It is using that method, the board said, because federal law forbids the state from outright removing registrants from voter rolls if it cannot be completed within 90 days before a federal election.

In the lawsuit, Republicans said that if the state board had started its process on July 1, "it it would have had enough time to follow the requirements."

The board asked that the state and national Republicans "immediately rescind their press releases on this topic, as they will undermine voter confidence on an entirely false premise."

Legislative Republicans overturned Gov. Roy Cooper's veto on Senate Bill 747 in October.

"If someone is selected to serve on a jury and that person indicates they are a non-citizen, the information must go to elections boards so they are not eligible to vote," said Matt Mercer, communications director for the NCGOP. "There is no reason not to be using this safeguard as required by SB 747."

The lawsuit says that there are 501,000 foreign-born non-citizens in the state, including 325,000 "unauthorized" immigrants in North Carolina, citing February statistics from the Office of State Budget and Management.

The lawsuit says that no one has to prove they are a citizen in order to register to vote in the state.

"As a result, there may be significant numbers of non-citizens who have registered to vote," the lawsuit says.

The state board said it briefed the staff of Republican legislative leaders of its plan in November and informed all election officials of the program earlier in August.