The North Carolina State Board of Elections has been trying to contact 103,000 voters to collect their driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers to get into compliance with state and federal election security laws.
As of Monday, this included 3,929 voters in Cumberland County, according to the Board of Elections website. There were previously 4,984 Cumberland County voters on the list as of July 17, says an analysis by political scientist and author Chris Cooper of Western Carolina University. But the state and local numbers have decreased as people submitted their information or left the voter rolls due to moving away, dying or for other reasons, he said.
Elections officials are reaching out to voters with its Registration Repair Project to ask them to provide the missing information. Voters are invited to use a state elections office website to look up whether their information is missing and, from there, get guidance on what to do if they are on the list.
“This information is used to verify the person’s identity,” says a July 17 news release from the elections office. “However, faulty instructions on a voter registration form used in North Carolina for about a decade led some voters to register without providing either number.”
As of Monday afternoon, the statewide total had dropped to 91,275 people, as people provided the information needed to cure the problem with their voter registration. No eligible voters will be removed from the list due to this issue, said State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes, N.C. Newsline reported.
The matter is also the subject of a lawsuit that the Trump administration filed against the state Board of Elections in May.
The missing information was the basis of a lawsuit in the 2024 election. North Carolina Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin sued to get more than 60,000 voters’ ballots thrown out. Most of these were on the premise that the voter registration information on file for those voters lacked either the driver license number or the Social Security numbers.
Griffin, a Republican, was challenging whether their votes should count after he trailed Democratic incumbent Associate Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes. Canceling the 60,000-plus ballots could have turned the results in Griffin’s favor.
Ultimately, a federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump ruled against Griffin, and Riggs retained the seat.
How to cure your voter registration
If your name is on the Registration Repair Project list, the state Board of Elections says there are options to get your voter registration updated:
- Fix it online. People with a driver license or a state ID issued by the state Division of Motor Vehicles can provide their ID information via the DMV’s website.
- Visit your county Board of Elections office with your driver’s license or state ID, or the last four digits of your Social Security number. This must be done in person, not by phone. The Cumberland County Board of Elections office is at 227 Fountainhead Lane, Suite 101, Fayetteville.
- By mail after you get a notification. This month, the State Board of Elections is sending letters to every voter still on the Registration Repair Project list. Voters who get these letters are asked to fill out a form and mail it back. An envelope with prepaid postage will be provided.
- Provide the license, state ID or Social Security number at a polling place the next time you vote. However, your ballot will be considered provisional, and it won’t be counted until the county Board of Elections reviews your information and decides if you provided what is needed.
In the event a voter cannot provide a driver license, a state ID or the last four digits of a Social Security number, the voter can provide another document with their name and address on it, such as a current utility bill, bank statement, a paycheck stub or W-2, or other government documents.
Voters are the list: Mostly younger and independent
Cooper, the political scientist, has analyzed the statewide list of voters with the missing data.
“Young people are more likely to be on the list, and young people are less likely to have cured their registration thus far,” he told CityView on Monday.
While the average age of a North Carolina registered voter is 51, the average age of a voter on the missing-information list is 39, according to Cooper’s analysis. About 25% are under age 25, about 50% under age 33, and 75% under age 52, he wrote.
Some of Cooper’s other findings:
- 63% of the people on the list were unaffiliated, or “independent” voters.
- 14% were Republicans.
- 22.5% were Democrats.
- A combined total of 0.41% were in the Libertarian Party or Green Party.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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