In a major move, North Carolina’s State Board of Elections has purged 747,000 voters from its rolls over the past 20 months. The cleaning of the voter rolls was revealed on Thursday following a routine maintenance check in the highly contested battleground state.
According to election officials, most voters removed were those who had left the state without updating their voter registration or had been inactive during the last two federal election cycles. The state’s system automatically classifies these individuals as inactive, eventually removing them from the voter rolls if they don’t respond to mailings. Other reasons for removal included deaths, felony convictions, moving out of state, or personal requests.
This voter roll maintenance comes as North Carolina Republicans continue to push legal challenges, accusing election officials of failing to address concerns over voter fraud. A lawsuit filed by the GOP highlighted alleged lapses in voter registration forms in Wake County, which they claim omitted critical information, including driver’s license or Social Security numbers.
“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 alleged, according to The Hill.
In another election-related battle, Republicans also opposed the use of digital IDs issued by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as valid voter identification, a move that was dismissed by a local judge.
With North Carolina holding around 7.7 million voters after the purge, the state remains one of seven swing states crucial to the 2024 presidential election. It also faces a competitive gubernatorial race between Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein. While North Carolina has traditionally leaned Republican, political analysts expect fierce competition as polls show close margins between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
The Marist Poll released this week found Harris and Trump are tied at 49 percent among likely voters in North Carolina who were asked which candidate they leaned toward.
