NC Board of Elections asks 241,000 voters to verify identity

Nearly a quarter million registered voters in North Carolina will be asked to verify their identity to ensure the accuracy of current voter rolls, according to a Feb. 3 press release from the NC Board of Elections.

The state elections board is sending 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 letters noted that the mismatch could be due to a simple error — such as “differences in how a name is spelled in each record such as adding or omitting hyphens apostrophes, or space, or the use of a prior legal name, such as a maiden name, in one of the records … The mismatch may also be caused by a date of birth or [driver’s license number] or [social security number] listing a number in the wrong field or transposing numbers in the records.”

Voters who fail to respond could be asked if they want to update their information at their voting site during the next election. They will still be eligible to cast ballots.

“This is just another way we are working to have the most accurate voter rolls in North Carolina history,” said Sam Hayes, executive director of the state elections board, in a statement. “This effort does not affect the eligibility of any of these voters to cast ballots in our elections.”

NC election law, reinforced by the federal Help America Vote Act, requires voters to provide either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their social security number when registering, or to attest that they possess neither. Election officials then attempt to cross-reference the information against existing records with the NC Division of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security Administration.

Voters may update their information with the state elections board by mail, online, or in person, according to the letters.

The state elections board says these mailings will become a routine, twice-yearly process in January and August.

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.

“NC Board of Elections asks 241,000 voters to verify identity” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.