North Carolina‘s State Board of Elections has purged 747,000 voters from its rolls in a major update following a routine maintenance check. The voter roll cleaning, which occurred over the past 20 months, was confirmed on Thursday and revealed that most of the removed voters had either left the state or been inactive during the last two federal election cycles.
According to election officials, those removed were classified as inactive due to not responding to mailings or updating their voter registration. Other reasons for removal included deaths, felony convictions or personal requests to be removed.
GOP Legal Pushes Over Voter Integrity
The purge comes amidst ongoing legal challenges from North Carolina Republicans, who have raised concerns about voter fraud and alleged issues with voter registration processes. In one instance, a GOP lawsuit cited lapses in registration forms in Wake County, claiming critical information like driver’s license or Social Security numbers were missing.
Additionally, Republicans objected to using digital IDs issued by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as valid voter identification, though a local judge dismissed the challenge.
“By failing to collect certain statutorily required information prior to registering these applicants to vote, Defendants placed the integrity of the state’s elections into jeopardy,” the lawsuit alleges, according to The Hill:
North Carolina is one of seven swing states likely to decide the presidential election between Vice President Harris and former President Trump. Only one Democrat this century, former President Obama in 2008, has won the state in a presidential contest, but Harris has been polling close to Trump this cycle.
The state is also home to a tough gubernatorial contest between Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein.
Impact on 2024 Elections
With North Carolina holding around 7.7 million voters post-purge, the state remains pivotal in the 2024 presidential election.
The latest Marist Poll shows a close race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, with both candidates tied at 49% among likely voters.
In the gubernatorial race, Robinson is now behind Stein by more than 10 percentage points. This is after reports came out that the Christian conservative made sexually explicit and lewd comments between 2008 and 2012 on a pornographic website called “Nude Africa,” which has a message board. Robinson allegedly posted these comments under the username “minisoldr,” a moniker he had used.
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