With a little over a week to go before the state’s primary elections, Mount Olive native Ron Herring has been named as the director of election security and enforcement for the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE), effective immediately.
State board Executive Director Sam Hayes made the announcement on Monday.
“Ron’s impressive background and decades of experience stood out amongst the other candidates, and this appointment will further our mission of providing comprehensive election security for the people of North Carolina,” Hayes said in a press release. “I am confident Ron will bring valuable knowledge to our existing investigations unit and further enhance the public trust in North Carolina’s elections security.”
As director of election security and enforcement, Herring will oversee investigative operations; support election security initiatives; and work with federal, state, and local partners to protect the integrity of North Carolina’s elections.
A graduate of Southern Wayne High School and the US Military Academy at West Point, Herring brings 29 years of experience leading, advising, and directing complex law enforcement and security operations at the federal level, most recently serving in senior leadership supporting the US Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces program, where he coordinated intelligence-driven operations, managed field office performance, and strengthened partnerships across federal, state, and local agencies.
He also served as a supervisory criminal investigator with Homeland Security Investigations, leading major initiatives addressing drug trafficking, human trafficking, financial crimes, and immigration fraud.
Throughout his career, Herring has overseen sensitive investigations, supervised national enforcement programs, and helped establish task forces to protect national security and public safety. He was selected to support security operations for the inauguration of Barack Obama and received the Southern District of Texas US Attorney’s Award for his work on a long-term investigation targeting a major international drug trafficking organization.
“Election security is an integral part of building and maintaining confidence in North Carolina’s elections,” State Auditor Dave Boliek stated in the release. “Having professionals like Mr. Herring on board as director of election security and enforcement will go a long way in helping ensure it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat in our elections.”
Election security has been an important issue in North Carolina over the last few years.
The NCSBE approved a three-part plan in June to collect missing identification numbers of 195,000 voters on the voter rolls.
Hayes said he came up with the plan that would work to obtain driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of Social Security numbers for registered North Carolina voters who lack either number in their voter records. As a result, the Registration Repair Project kicked off in July.
The missing information has been a requirement of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which took effect in 2004.
The choice to provide either form of identification was marked as optional on the state’s voter registration form until Carol Snow filed a complaint with NCSBE in 2023, which discussed the matter at its Nov. 28, 2023, meeting.
The registration application was corrected in January 2024.
In September, Hayes reached out to the Division of Motor Vehicles, Paul Tine, for the Social Security numbers of DMV customers who are also registered voters.
The information would allow election officials to match voter records more precisely against other government databases, identify duplicate registrations, and verify voter eligibility.
Tine told Hayes the data-sharing request was undergoing legal review
After not receiving a response, Hayes sent a follow-up letter in December. Russ Ferguson, US Attorney, Western District of North Carolina; state Sens. Brad Overcash, R-Gaston;, Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell; and Warren Daniel, R-Burke, co-chairmen, Senate Committee on Elections; and state Reps. Hugh Blackwell, R-Burke, and Sarah Stevens, R-Surry, co-chairs of the House Committee on Election Law; were also copied in the letter.
He also stated during a December meeting that Ferguson had written to Tine regarding a number of non-citizens who had been processed through the DMV and the motor voter registration system.
“Commissioner Tine says the problem is fixed,” Hayes said during the meeting. “I have never seen a satisfactory answer on how that issue was fixed. These people were just waved through the system, and many, I believe, without their knowledge. There may have been an English proficiency issue there as well. So, I believe that that problem still exists, and so does the United States Attorney.”
As of Feb. 23, there has been no resolution for the request.
The board voted along party lines, 3-2, at a meeting in November in favor of using a federal immigration-verification system to help identify non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls.
Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) is administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and is used by federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local government agencies to verify the immigration status and US citizenship of applicants seeking benefits, like Medicaid, or licenses.
Earlier this month, the NCSBE sent letters to more than 241,000 voters who provided identification information that didn’t validate against other government databases. Voters may confirm their information by providing their driver’s license, social security numbers, or by ensuring the name on their voter registration matches other official government records.
The initiative is separate from the state election board’s Registration Repair Project, which has completed the registrations of more than 32,000 voters statewide.
Also, earlier this month, Boliek announced a new bipartisan, 22-member Modernization of Election Data Systems (MEDS) Commission to help bring North Carolina’s election management system up to date.
Hayes announced the joint initiative with Boliek’s office in October to solicit input on the state’s Election Information Management System and Campaign Finance Reporting Software, both of which he said were outdated.
The Statewide Elections Information Management System (SEIMS) was initially developed in 1998 and is the central elections management system that coordinates statewide elections processes, voter registration, voter roll list maintenance, and reporting of election results. It is used daily by the state board and the 100 county boards of elections.
In addition, the campaign finance reporting software was developed by NCSBE in the early 2000s. The NCSBE maintains both systems, while NCOSA directs and supervises all budgeting functions of the NCSBE.
Additionally, a federal judge has approved a deal among Republican and Democratic Party organizations, along with the North Carolina State Board of Elections, to end a lawsuit over incomplete voter registration records.
Chief US District Judge Richard Myers signed an order that ends the legal battle state and national GOP groups initiated in 2024 over North Carolina voter registration records.
The Republican suit targeted voter records that lacked information required by the federal Help America Vote Act. The GOP cited 225,000 voter registration records that appeared to lack a HAVA-mandated drivers’ license number or last four digits of a Social Security number.
The Republican National Committee, Democratic National Committee, and State Board of Elections filed a motion on Feb. 16 in federal court to end the dispute.
In-person early voting ends at 3 pm on Feb. 28. Primary Election Day is March 3, with the absentee ballot return deadline is 7:30 pm. Note that military and overseas voting have different voter registration and absentee voting deadlines.