North Carolina pulls 747,000 people off of voter registration rolls; Tennessee should consider the same
The North Carolina State Board of Elections has removed over 747,000 people from its list of registered voters with less than six weeks until Election Day.
The records were purged from the state’s voter registration rolls over the past 20 months, according to an NCSBE press release published Thursday.
“The county boards follow careful policies to ensure that only ineligible records are removed, not those of eligible voters,” the release reads.
Three of the top reasons for removal were that the voter was determined to have been deceased, had duplicate registrations due to moving within the state, or had garnered an “inactive status” from election officials after failing to participate in two federal elections.
The board’s announcement comes after the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party filed two lawsuits concerning ineligible voter registration records against the NCSBE in August.
Their efforts sought to purge more than 200,000 voters amid worries that the NCSBE had not taken appropriate action to “clean up” voter rolls by failing to check jury questionnaires to identify noncitizens and remove them from the voter rolls.
“The NCSBE has once again failed in its mandate to keep non-citizens off the voter rolls, fueling distrust and jeopardizing our elections. We are committed to the basic principle — and commonsense law — that only Americans decide American elections,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement at the time. “Deliberately failing to follow the law, right before our country’s most important election, is inexcusable.”
North Carolina has come to the forefront of the political stage this election cycle both for state and national races.
The battleground state is a critical part of the path to victory for the winner of the 2024 presidential election. Former President Donald Trump currently holds a razor-thin lead over Vice President Kamala Harris, according to an AARP survey released on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the state’s GOP gubernatorial nominee has become embroiled in a scandal that he has described as “salacious tabloid lies.” Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is battling for his political future as he fends off allegations that he posted lewd and racist comments on a pornography site over a decade ago. Though he’s firmly denied the accusations, Robinson has lost crucial GOP support as he fights to become North Carolina’s first Republican governor since 1985.