Sound familiar? Trump admin sues NC elections board over voter registrations

The Trump administration is suing the state Board of Elections over what it says are violations of federal law for failing to maintain an accurate voter registration file.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department said the lack of driver’s license numbers, partial Social Security numbers, or unique identifying numbers connected to some voter registration records violates the Help America Vote Act.

The Justice Department wants the elections board to ask all voters who do not have the proper numbers in the statewide database for the information. The elections board is to attach unique numbers to voters who do not have those other identifiers.

The allegations in the DOJ lawsuit mirror an issue Republican Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin raised as he tried to overturn Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs’ election victory by throwing out votes.

The DOJ claims also mirror a state Republican Party and Republican National Committee federal lawsuit contending that people who do not have the government digits connected to their electronic file are not legally registered to vote. It’s unclear how many registrations don’t have the numbers, but the GOP sought to purge about 225,000 voters over the issue.

The elections board did not do enough to remedy the problem of missing identification numbers when conservative activist Carol Snow raised it in a complaint in 2023, the DOJ lawsuit says.

The state was using voter registration forms that made it look like providing a driver’s license number or partial Social Security number was optional. In some cases, the information was not typed into the database even when voters did supply it.

The board, then controlled by Democrats, voted unanimously to make the recommended changes to the voter registration form, but “declined to take sufficient steps to cure their continuing violations” by contacting voters, the lawsuit says.

Republicans took control of the elections board this month and appointed a Republican executive director.

In a statement, Executive Director Sam Hayes said:

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