- National Republican and Democratic groups and the North Carolina State Board of Elections have filed competing arguments in a GOP lawsuit challenging 225,000 voter registrations in North Carolina.
- The case sits now in federal court. The State Board of Elections has asked a federal judge to dismiss the suit. The Democratic National Committee supports that motion. State and national GOP groups want the case moved back to state court.
- US Chief District Judge Richard Myers will hold an Oct. 17 hearing in Wilmington to discuss the case.
Republican and Democratic groups and the North Carolina State Board of Elections have filed competing arguments in the GOP’s lawsuit challenging 225,000 voter registrations in the Tar Heel State.
The case sits now in federal court, where the state elections board is seeking a dismissal. The Republican National Committee and state Republican Party have filed a motion to send the case back to state court, where it was originally filed.
The Democratic National Committee filed court documents Monday supporting the elections board’s motion to dismiss the case and opposing Republicans’ proposal to shift the case back to a state court.
“Just weeks before election day, and with voting already underway, the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party ask this Court to purge up to 225,000 registered North Carolinians from the voter rolls — without providing them any notice or opportunity to be heard — even though these voters filled out the state’s voter-registration form, had their applications (and their eligibility to vote) verified by election officials, and will bring identification to the polls (as state law now requires),” Democratic lawyers wrote. “Plaintiffs seek this mass disenfranchisement, moreover, based on a data-collection requirement that has nothing to do with voters’ eligibility to vote.”
“Plaintiffs’ claims should be rejected,” the Democratic court filing added.
The state and national Republican groups filed a competing document Monday objecting to the motion to dismiss the case.
“Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss reveals nothing but the flaws in their defense,” GOP lawyers wrote. “Rather than being contrite about their admitted failure to comply with the law in registering voters, Defendants double down on their do-nothing approach to cleaning up their own mess. In doing so, Defendants blame Plaintiffs, and by extension the people of North Carolina, for Defendants’ own failures to create a compliant voter registration form.”
The motion to dismiss “is barred by their own unclean hands,” GOP lawyers added.
A separate court filing from the State Board of Elections rejected Republicans’ request to have the case moved out of federal court.
“Plaintiffs’ Complaint repeatedly alleges that the State Board is engaged in ‘ongoing violations of … federal law’ — specifically, the Help America Vote Act (‘HAVA’),” the elections board’s lawyers wrote. “Plaintiffs now attempt to downplay their reliance on federal law because they would much prefer to proceed in state court.”
“Federal courts have developed doctrines to ensure that plaintiffs cannot artfully plead away federal jurisdiction when their claims necessarily turn on the construction of federal law,” the elections board’s court filing continued. “Specifically, federal courts retain jurisdiction to consider a plaintiff’s state-law claims when those claims necessarily raise a substantial and disputed federal question.”
“Here, the substantial federal-question doctrine suffices to defeat Plaintiffs’ attempt to avoid federal court,” the elections board’s court filing continued. “Plaintiffs’ ‘state-law’ claims arise from an alleged violation of a state statute that is titled ‘Compliance with Federal Law’ and whose sole function is to require the State Board to implement certain provisions of HAVA.”
Parties will file more briefs Friday before a scheduled Oct. 17 hearing in Wilmington before US Chief District Judge Richard Myers.
The Republican National Committee and state Republican Party have filed four lawsuits against the State Board of Elections between Aug. 22 and Sept. 12. The other three cases remain in state court.
The voter registration lawsuit filed in August argues that the elections board failed to require identification from prospective voters to prove citizenship. GOP groups argued that by violating the Help America Vote Act and not checking the identification of approximately 225,000 voters, the agency opened the door for noncitizens to vote.
According to the suit, the NCSBE used a voter registration form before December 2023 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.
The RNC and NCGOP argued that the elections board “has refused to take remedial action and did not reach out to these voters to collect the required information. The agency has offered a half-hearted promise to North Carolinians that those ineligible to register, but were allowed to anyways, will naturally filter themselves out.”