RALEIGH, N.C. — State and national Republican Party leaders are suing the State Board of Elections again, days after the board criticized GOP leaders for filing a lawsuit based on what the board called "categorically false" allegations about the potential for voter fraud.
Monday's complaint is the second lawsuit making election integrity-related claims that GOP leaders say call into question whether large numbers of immigrants are illegally voting in North Carolina — echoing false claims former President Donald Trump made in the 2016 and 2020 elections. State elections officials say the GOP's claims are based on a skewed version of the facts, and that the lawsuit's proposed solution is itself illegal.
Last week the the North Carolina Republican Party and the Republican National Committee, who are also behind Monday's lawsuit, filed a separate lawsuit on the same theme of immigrants signing up to vote. The State Board of Elections, which is governed by a Democratic majority, said at the time that the claims in that lawsuit "undermine voter confidence on an entirely false premise."
The new lawsuit, filed Monday, claims that nearly a quarter of a million people were allowed to register to vote in North Carolina without proving their identity. It asks for a federal judge to potentially order the state to revoke all those people's voter registrations, making them ineligible to cast a ballot in the 2024 elections unless they re-register in the next few months.
“The NCSBE has once again failed in its mandate to keep non-citizens off the voter rolls, fueling distrust and jeopardizing our elections. We are committed to the basic principle – and commonsense law – that only Americans decide American elections," RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said. "Deliberately failing to follow the law, right before our country’s most important election, is inexcusable. We will fight every day to ensure that NCSBE follows the law, cleans the voter rolls, and protects the vote for North Carolinians.”
But, the board says Monday's suit "misunderstands the data" and "vastly overstates any alleged problems with voter registrations."
"This lawsuit asks for an impossible solution. Despite being aware of their alleged claims months ago, the plaintiffs have waited until two weeks before the start of voting to seek a court-ordered program to remove thousands of existing registered voters," the NCSBE said in a statement. "If a voter does not have a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number populated in the voter registration database, that does not necessarily mean that they were allowed to register improperly ... and even if voters failed to provide either their driver’s license or last-four digits of their Social Security numbers when they registered, just like voters whose information did not match between databases, those voters would have been required to show another type of ID before voting."
The challenges join multiple other lawsuits filed in key swing states across the country, including Michigan and Nevada with republicans questioning the elections process and pushing election officials to remove voters.
“This is somewhat of a scare job in the sense of trying to alarm people about huge numbers when in fact I think the reality is that we’re talking about a very, very … small number of people that will be a problem," Bob Orr, Retired N.C. Supreme Court Justice and Co-Lead N.C. Network for Fair, Safe, and Secure Elections, said.
"This challenge coming so close to an election when basically it is too close to an election to tell a voter to cure their registration if it's missing the drivers license number," Jennifer Roberts, Former Charlotte Mayor and Co-Lead N.C. Network for Fair, Safe, and Secure Elections, said. "So, I think it is, you know, something again, to create confusion.”