Elias-linked groups oppose deal in noncitizen voter removal lawsuit

Two activist groups working with Democratic operative Marc Elias’ law firm oppose a deal between Republican Party groups and the North Carolina State Board of Elections. The deal would end a lawsuit over removing from North Carolina’s voting rolls any noncitizens identified through jury questionnaires.

A court hearing is scheduled Wednesday before Superior Court Judge Jennifer Bedford.

The GOP groups filed paperwork in April indicating they had reached a deal with election officials to end the 2024 lawsuit.

North Carolina Asian Americans Together and El Pueblo, intervenors in the case, filed a notice Monday indicating their opposition to the deal. The Elias Law Group represents both groups.

“Specifically, they object to the provision requiring the State Board of Elections to publish on its public website the list of individuals who self-identified as non-citizens in response to jury summonses,” according to the notice filed on behalf of the two activist groups.

“This provision would expose sensitive personal information about individuals who did nothing more than comply with the law — many of whom may have been erroneously flagged as noncitizens or have since become fully eligible voters — and it is not required by any North Carolina law, including the law Plaintiffs purportedly sought to enforce through this lawsuit,” the court filing continued.

The deal requires election officials “to affirmatively publish the lists on its public website with no citation to any statutory authority, because none exists,” the notice explained. “The distinction matters. Public records availability means that those who seek out the information may obtain it through established legal channels. By contrast, mandatory affirmative publication means the state itself is broadcasting a list of individuals flagged as potential non-citizens to anyone with internet access, without any request, any record, any process, or any legal basis requiring it to do so.”

“The ensuing harm is not abstract,” the intervening groups argued. “Publication of this list could have a severe chilling effect on voter participation among eligible citizens in immigrant communities, including the communities Intervenors serve.”

The court filing referenced recent Trump administration activity.

“The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security are close to finalizing an agreement to use voter registration data for immigration investigations, and just last week, the Department of Justice issued a legal opinion purporting to give itself authority to share state voter registration lists with the Department of Homeland Security to check whether noncitizens were improperly registered to vote — meaning that a state-published list of individuals flagged as potential non-citizens could serve as a roadmap for federal enforcement action against lawful voters,” Elias’ clients argued. “Individuals whose names appear on a publicly accessible government list of purported non-citizens may reasonably fear that exercising their right to vote will expose them or their family members to immigration scrutiny, regardless of their own citizenship status. That fear, and the resulting voter suppression, would fall hardest on the very communities that Intervenors serve.”

The North Carolina Republican Party and Republican National Committee have asked the Wake County court to enter an order ending the dispute.

 “Plaintiffs and Defendants have agreed to the proposed Consent Judgment’s entry,” lawyers representing the GOP groups wrote last month.

The proposed deal “is fair, does not contradict statutory, judicial, or public policy, and will end this litigation,” the GOP lawyers added.

“Defendant State Board has and will continue to comply with its statutory obligations under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-82.14(cl) to perform list-maintenance efforts regarding those persons who have self-identified in response to a jury summons that they are not United States citizens (‘Self-Identified Non-Citizens’),” according to the proposed consent judgment.

The agreement also spells out schedules through 2028 for the board to receive information from clerks of Superior Court across North Carolina.

Within 30 days of receiving the information from court clerks, the elections board would “[r]eview the voter-registration and citizenship status of each person identified,” “[d]istribute to each county board of elections a report of the persons identified who are registered to vote in that county, including information provided under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 9-6.2, the voter registration number of the person, and the result of the NCSBE’s review of the person’s voter registration and citizenship status,” and “[f]urnish to the State Bureau of Investigation and the district attorney a copy of its investigation for prosecution if the prospective juror voted prior to becoming a U.S. citizen.”

Information about the process would be made available to the public.

“[T]he list of persons requesting to be disqualified from jury duty based on the fact they are not United States citizens shall be a public record and subject to disclosure in response to a request pursuant to the N.C. Public Records Act (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-1, et seq.), unless additional information or supporting documents provided and contained within that list is confidential or otherwise not a public record under state or federal law,” according to the consent judgment.

“The State Board further agrees that it will make the list of persons requesting to be disqualified from jury duty based on the fact they are not United States citizens, provided to the State Board by the clerks of superior court, publicly available on the State Board’s FTP website, with appropriate redactions to comply with state and federal law,” the document added.

The Republican groups would dismiss their lawsuit. Both GOP groups and the elections board would cover their own attorneys’ fees.

“North Carolina Democrats are illegally trying to pad voter rolls with people who are not citizens,” said RNC Chairman Joe Gruters in a statement emailed to Carolina Journal. “It is straightforward: If someone admits they are not a citizen when they are considered for jury duty, that same information should be used to ensure they are not registered to vote. Election officials have a clear responsibility to uphold the law, and the RNC is taking action to make sure that noncitizens are removed from North Carolina’s voter rolls.”

Republicans claimed when filing suit in August 2024 that state election officials were ignoring a 2023 state law requiring removal from the voting rolls of noncitizens identified through jury questionnaires.

An elections board spokesman called the accusations “categorically false.” The board issued a statement calling on Republican groups to “immediately rescind” their press releases about the legal action.

“Plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment that Defendants must conduct individually specific voter registration list maintenance efforts for people who have self-identified as non-citizens after their receipt of jury summonses,” according to the complaint filed in Wake County Superior Court. Section 44 of Senate Bill 747, approved over Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto in 2023, required the review.

“Plaintiffs also seek an order directing Defendants to comply with their obligations under North Carolina’s Public Records Act and produce documents that Plaintiffs have properly requested under the Act concerning Defendants’ compliance (or lack thereof) with Section 44,” the lawsuit continued.

Republicans cited a February 2024 report from state budget officials that “approximately 325,000 ‘unauthorized’ immigrants were residing in the state.”

“Safeguards related to non-citizen voting are particularly salient during this election cycle given the unprecedented millions of people who have illegally immigrated into the United States – apparently relocating, in many cases, to North Carolina,” Republicans’ lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.

“Only Americans should vote in American elections,” then-RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a news release. Whatley is now Republicans’ candidate for North Carolina’s open US Senate seat. “If someone claims non-citizenship, they must be taken off the voter rolls – that’s the law. The NCSBE has chosen to blatantly ignore the law, undermine basic election safeguards, and neglect a fundamental principle of our election integrity.”

“The RNC and NCGOP defended this law in court, and now we will make sure the NCSBE follows and enforces these critical safeguards in The Old North State,” Whatley added. 

“Assertions in the lawsuit that the State Board is refusing to comply with Section 44 of Session Law 2023-140 are categorically false,” elections board spokesman Patrick Gannon wrote in an email to Carolina Journal in August 2024. “We ask that the NCGOP and RNC immediately rescind their press releases on this topic, as they will undermine voter confidence on an entirely false premise.”

Elections board staff “have worked diligently” with Superior Court clerks across the state to comply with the law, Gannon wrote to CJ. Based on information clerks submitted in August 2024, the board identified nine people on voter rolls who were excused from jury duty because they said they were not US citizens.

“If a check of state and federal databases shows any of those nine individuals have not obtained citizenship, the State Board will send them letters informing the registrants of the agency’s findings and invite them, if not U.S. citizens, to cancel their registrations to comply with the law,” Gannon wrote.

North Carolina Asian Americans Together and El Pueblo filed a motion in August 2024 to intervene as defendants in the case.

“Plaintiffs seek to compel a rushed, systematic purge of the voter rolls just weeks before voting in the 2024 general election begins,” lawyers for the two groups wrote in the motion. “Plaintiffs demand this extraordinary relief based on nothing more than their unfounded belief that state election officials are ‘refusing to comply with and implement’ a new state law that requires county boards to consider whether individuals who self-identified as non-citizens on juror questionnaires should be removed from the voter rolls.”

“But, as Plaintiffs themselves admit, the process of investigating and confirming the citizenship status of such individuals takes 90 days, and Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit only 52 days after the law went into effect,” the motion continued. “That timeline alone makes it impossible for the Court to declare that Defendants violated the law. Moreover, federal law prohibits the state from systematically removing voters from the rolls this late in the election cycle.”

“Nonetheless, Plaintiffs ask this Court to order state election officials to expedite the removal of purported non-citizens on a rushed timeline that would not allow time for those officials to confirm voters’ citizenship status before purging them from the rolls,” the proposed intervenors argued. “Such relief, in addition to being inconsistent with state and federal law, would create a severe risk of disenfranchising lawful voters through no fault of their own just days before voting begins on September 6.”

The Asian and Latino groups seek “to protect the fundamental voting rights of their constituents and community members in North Carolina, as well as their organizational interests, which would be impaired if Plaintiffs succeed,” the document continued.

More than 130,000 North Carolinians naturalized as citizens since 2013 “face a particularly acute threat from Plaintiffs’ effort to force a rushed removal of all voters who self-identified as non-citizens at some point in time,” the motion argued.

“Elias-linked groups oppose deal in noncitizen voter removal lawsuit” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.