The North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) is investigating numerous reports of alleged misconduct of people running voter registration drives in seven counties, including impersonating state or county election officials.
In recent months, reports have come from Brunswick, Buncombe, Chowan, Haywood, Nash, Scotland, and Wake counties, but according to Jason Tyson, spokesman for the State Board, these types of complaints have been a problem over the last several years.
“Over the past 10 years, we have received thousands of these types of complaints and lately that number has gone up because we’re in an election cycle, we’re getting ready to have the primary, and in every year of an election cycle, it tends to bring different types of these people looking to register folks,” he told Carolina Journal on Friday. “We’ve seen an increase in those counties, and I think there have been over the last year, 300 of these types of reports in about 30 counties.”
The complaints include:
- Individuals working on voter registration drives are misinforming voters that they must re-register to vote in future elections, regardless of the circumstances, which is not true. Unless they have moved to a new county, voters who are already registered are not required to re-register. However, voters who move to a new address in the same county or wish to change their name or party affiliation should submit a new voter registration application to update their voter record.
- Individuals are going door-to-door, falsely identifying themselves as county or state election workers. Government election workers do not go door-to-door for any reason.
- Voter registration applications turned into county boards of elections are missing required voter information or include inaccurate information, such as a wrong date of birth or a voter identification number different from what’s on file in the state election system. It is a Class I felony to falsify a voter registration form.
“The State Board will investigate all credible allegations of voter registration fraud by individuals or organizations,” said State Board Executive Director Sam Hayes in a press release. “When workers involved in voter drives falsify or alter information on registration forms, it can cause problems for innocent voters at the polls. This is unacceptable and hurts voter confidence.”
Tyson said they have seen all kinds of names, including names of rappers, Mickey Mouse, nicknames, and aliases, on some voter registration forms. He also noted that it’s not anyone partisan trying to register people to any one party.
The NCSBE has some tips for voters if they have any questions about voter registration.
- All voters can check their voter registration status through the State Board’s Voter Search tool. If you are already registered, you do not have to re-register.
- If a person is not registered or needs to update their registration, they can visit How to Register or Updating Registration.
- If a registration form is filled out as part of a registration drive, a person can return the form in person to their county board of elections or by mail. The form doesn’t have to be given back to the voter drive worker.
- If someone shows up at a person’s door claiming to be a state or county elections worker, or even at a voter registration drive, ask them for identification, take down their name, and contact the State Board office.
- Do not give anyone any information before verifying their identification. If an individual refuses to comply, contact the State Board in one of the following ways: Call the State Board office at (919) 814-0700 and ask for the Investigations Division; send an email with as much information as possible and contact information to [email protected]; fill out an Election Law Complaint Form and return it to the State Board of Elections.
When conducting voter registration drives, organizers must follow guidelines set by statute and the State Board. For more information, organizers may visit Hosting Voter Registration Drives.