NC Board of Elections rejects complaint about duplicate voter registrations, but wants cleaner rolls

The State Board of Election decided unanimously that North Carolina is complying with the Help America Vote Act’s requirement to remove duplicate voter records from the statewide registration database. 

Still, some board members said Thursday that elections officials could do more to clear the rolls of duplicate registrations. Board members began to discuss ways to add drivers license numbers to existing voter registration records to more easily identify duplicates.  

“Cleaning up the rolls is extraordinarily important,” said Board Chairman Alan Hirsch.

Carol Snow of the NC Audit Force filed a complaint with the elections board claiming that inadequate maintenance of the computerized registered voter list put the state out of compliance with the 2002 federal voting law. Snow presented examples of what appeared to be duplicate voter registrations where names were misspelled or first and middle names were transposed. 

“Clone registrations can be used for voter fraud,” she said.

The NC Audit Force was one of the groups calling for a “forensic audit” after the 2020 election based on the myth that massive voter fraud denied Donald Trump a second term as president.

At Thursday’s hearing, Snow presented seven examples where she said it was possible people voted twice in an election.

Paul Cox, the board’s general counsel, explained that no one voted twice in any of those cases. Several of Snow’s examples were the result of poll workers misspelling names or creating a new record when failing to realize the voter was already registered. In another example, a son with the same name as his father was mistakenly checked in as his father, Cox said. The father and son both received ballots and each voted once. Another of Snow’s examples was a case of twins voting.

The state elections office manages the voter registration database and sets polices for maintenance, Cox said. County elections officials process voter registrations and maintain the voter list.

Elections workers remove thousands of duplicates every year and prevent the creation of new duplicates, he said. Duplicates are created when voters reregister after a move or change their names.

The methods elections officials use to find duplicates are designed to prevent false hits that would remove voters from the rolls in error,  Cox said. “This is an important balance to strike and get right,” he said.

While the elections board determined that the state is not breaking the law, some said they want to adopt some of Snow’s suggested remedies, such as beginning to collect more drivers license or partial Social Security numbers, or using the computer programming language those in Snow’s group used to find duplicates.

An old voter registration form that didn’t require a partial Social Security number or a drivers license number left more than 200,000 registration records without that identifying information, said board member Stacy “Four” Eggers IV.

“That form was defective and we need to do something to address it and correct it,” he said.

However, the board was divided on how quickly elections officials should start collecting the additional identifying information.

Hirsch and Eggers said elections workers could begin collecting drivers license numbers from voters who show up for the runoff primaries.

Board members Siobhan Millen and Jeff Carmon questioned the timetable. Carmon asked whether elections officials have the authority to ask for more information. Millen balked at dropping another duty on elections officials in a short time.