North Carolina-Trump DOJ Voter Purge Plan Is Illegal, Democrats Warn

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) charged that a North Carolina plan — hatched alongside the Trump Justice Department — to effectively remove nearly 100,000 registered voters from the rolls would violate federal voting law.

In a letter sent Friday to the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE), the DNC blasts the controversial new plan approved by the board in June. The plan would block tens of thousands of voters from having their ballots counted unless they submit additional ID information, such as a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

The board devised the plan after the Department of Justice sued the state, alleging that it had failed to collect information from voters that’s required under the Help America Vote Act.

At a board meeting last month, NCSBE executive director Sam Hayes, a former top GOP legislative aide, said he had been in “discussions” with the federal government to resolve the issue. Hayes added that he “planned to work with the DOJ” to bring the board into compliance with federal law.

In response, both the DNC and a pro-voting group, the North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans, filed motions to intervene in the case, asserting that neither the state board nor the DOJ was representing the interests of voters.

The DNC says in its letter that enforcement of this plan “effectively removes approximately 98,000 registrants from the ‘official list of eligible voters’ in violation of Section 8(a)(3) of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).”

The new policy would force affected voters to cast provisional ballots, but those ballots will only be counted if state officials are satisfied that the ID information voters provide is “correct.”

The DNC argues that under the NVRA, states are permitted to remove a voter from the rolls only under narrow circumstances: if a registrant requests removal, is convicted of a felony, is mentally incapacitated, dies or moves away. The new North Carolina policy introduces an unauthorized reason: “their voter-registration records purportedly lack certain identifying information.”

Moreover, the DNC outlined the political and operational harm to the party and its voters. The letter notes the plan “will force the DNC to expend and divert funds and resources that it would otherwise spend on voter outreach and mobilization efforts toward informing voters about their registration status.”

The letter gives the State Board until October to resolve the issue before the DNC pursues legal action.

“If the violations are not corrected … the DNC may file claims seeking declaratory or injunctive relief,” Seth Waxman, former U.S. Solicitor General, wrote for the DNC. “I hope that these violations may be resolved without the unnecessary expense of additional litigation.”

The North Carolina State Board of Elections did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans is represented by the Elias Law Group (ELG). ELG Firm Chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.