North Carolina Republicans Lose Effort To Remove Over 70,000 Names From Voter Rolls

North Carolina’s State Board of Elections reached a settlement Monday with the state Republican and Democratic parties that will allow roughly 73,000 voters additional time to update incomplete registration information before being removed from the voter rolls.

The agreement resolves a legal dispute that began in 2024, when the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina GOP sued state election officials. Republicans argued that approximately 250,000 voter registrations were incomplete because applicants had not provided the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, a driver’s license number, or an attestation that they had neither — information required under state and federal election law to verify voter identity.

Republicans had asked the courts to require the removal of those voters from the rolls and to invalidate any ballots cast by improperly registered individuals in the 2024 elections. GOP officials argued that accurate voter rolls are essential to maintaining public confidence in elections and ensuring compliance with existing identification laws.

State election officials acknowledged last summer that roughly 100,000 voters lacked complete identifying information in the registration system. By December, that number had declined to approximately 73,000, according to the board.

Under Monday’s settlement, those voters will remain on the rolls but will be required to update their identifying information when they cast a ballot. North Carolina law already requires voters to present photo identification at the polls, a measure approved by voters through a constitutional amendment in 2018 and later upheld after court challenges.

Democrats framed the agreement as a victory against what they describe as voter suppression efforts.

“This latest victory is a win for Americans and yet another blow to the Republicans’ scheme to disenfranchise voters ahead of the midterm elections,” DNC chair Ken Martin said in a statement after the settlement.

Republican officials have countered that their lawsuit sought to enforce existing registration requirements passed by lawmakers and approved under federal standards designed to prevent fraud and administrative errors.

The settlement comes as election integrity remains a major national issue. Congressional Republicans recently advanced the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which passed the House last week and is expected to face a vote in the Senate. The legislation would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, strengthen data-sharing between state election officials and federal agencies, and allow the Department of Homeland Security to pursue immigration enforcement if noncitizens are discovered on voter rolls.

Supporters of the SAVE Act argue that while documented cases of noncitizen voting are rare, requiring proof of citizenship would create uniform national standards and help prevent future vulnerabilities. Critics contend the bill would create unnecessary barriers for eligible voters.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) vowed Sunday that Senate Democrats will block the effort.

“We will not let it pass in the Senate,” Schumer told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We are fighting it tooth and nail. It’s an outrageous proposal that is, you know, that shows the sort of political bias of the MAGA right. They don’t want poor people to vote. They don’t want people of color to vote because they often don’t vote for them.”

Democrats have sharply criticized the proposal.

“What they are proposing in this so-called SAVE Act is like Jim Crow 2.0,” Schumer said. “They make it so hard to get any kind of voter ID that more than 20 million legitimate people, mainly poorer people and people of color, will not be able to vote under this law.”

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