The Republican National Committee (RNC) is suing North Carolina over its controversial voting policy that has opened the door for noncitizens to vote.
The lawsuit which was filed last week by the RNC and the North Carolina Republican Party in Wake County accuses the NCSBE and members, Alan Hirsch, Jeff Carmon, Siobhan Millen, Stacy Eggers IV and Kevin Lewis of failing to require identification to prove citizenship.
The lawsuit alleges that by violating the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and not checking the identification of approximately 225,000 voters, the agency “is opening the door for non-citizens to vote.”
North Carolina is the first state in the nation to start voting. The battleground state starts mailing out ballots for eligible voters on Sept. 6.
“The NCSBE has once again failed in its mandate to keep non-citizens off the voter rolls, fueling distrust and jeopardizing our elections,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “We are committed to the basic principle – and commonsense law – that only Americans decide American elections. 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.”“This State Board continually has problems ensuring voter rolls only have verified citizens,” NCGOP Chairman Jason Simmons added. “This lawsuit will remedy their ongoing refusal to collect the required information from those who want to take part in North Carolina elections. Accountability and fidelity to following the rule of law is long overdue for the most partisan Elections Board in state history.”
Fox News reported that the state board formerly used a voter registration form that failed to require HAVA-required identification information, such as a driver's license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. Election officials admitted the form was non-compliant with HAVA and eventually fixed it, but in the meantime, approximately 225,000 people registered without supplying the HAVA-required information, the complaint says.
Election officials allegedly refused to take remedial action and did not reach out to these voters to collect the required information.
A spokesperson for the NCSBE told Fox News Digital, “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. Federal law itself prevents such removal programs if they take place after the 90th day before a federal election, which was August 7. So, the lawsuit is asking for a rapid-fire voter removal program that violates federal law,” the spokesperson said. “The lawsuit also misunderstands the data and vastly overstates any alleged problems with voter registrations. 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.”
The statement went on to say that federal law “allows voters who lack one of these numbers to nonetheless be registered” and “state law also allows a registrant whose information fails to exactly match with the DMV or Social Security databases to be verified by showing another type of ID before voting.”
“And in any event, all these voters will be asked to show photo ID again when they vote this year,” the NCSBE spokesperson said.
This marks the second lawsuit filed by the RNC and the NCGOP against the North Carolina Board of Elections in a matter of weeks.
Last month, Republicans sued the board for allegedly failing to check jury questionnaire responses to identify and remove non-citizens from the voter rolls, as required by law.
Former Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed a lawsuit Friday in Wake County Superior Court, accusing the North Carolina Election Board of “irreparably harming” him by refusing to remove his name from the state's ballot. The board had ruled that it was simply too late, with 1.7 million ballots already printed for the battleground state. (RELATED: Report: RFK Jr. Sues For North Carolina Ballot Removal)
The board said in a statement: “It would not be practical to reprint ballots that have already been printed and meet the state law deadline to start absentee voting.”
The suit is part of Kennedy Jr.'s broader strategy to withdraw from key swing states, where polling suggests his candidacy could boost Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming election.
