North Carolina Election Board Faces Second Lawsuit in Five Days Amid Rising Legal Challenges
After four days in North Carolina politics, Yogi Berra’s famous catchphrase “déjà vu all over again” was heard in the news about the election on Monday, eleven days before absentee votes are sent out.
And, just like they did in response to the filing by the state and national Republican Parties on Thursday, the State Board of Elections points to federal law in response to the request from the Grand Old Party.
Last week, the board was accused of not doing enough to legally remove from the voter rolls people who registered to vote but were not citizens of the United States. This time, the board is accused of not doing enough to enforce the Help America Vote Act. The State Board of Elections changed its voter registration form to follow HAVA, but Republicans say that 225,000 people registered without the necessary information and were not called by the board to fix their problems.
“Even though they knew about their alleged claims months ago, the plaintiffs didn’t start their search for a court-ordered program to remove thousands of registered voters until two weeks before the election,” said Patrick Gannon, the board’s communications director. “These kinds of removal programs are against federal law if they happen after August 7, which was 90 days before an election.” So, the lawsuit wants a scheme to quickly get rid of voters who break federal law.
Gannon said the case “also misunderstands the data and greatly exaggerates any problems with voter registrations that are said to exist.” People who register to vote may not have a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number in the voter registration database. This does not necessarily mean that they registered illegally.
The head of the state GOP, Jason Simmons, said in a statement, “This state board continually has problems ensuring voter rolls only have verified citizens.” This case will stop them from refusing to get the information they need from people who want to vote in the North Carolina elections. A long time has passed since the most partisan elections board in state history was held responsible and committed to following the law.
Michael Whatley, who used to be the state chairman and is now the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said that the state board failed to keep noncitizens off the voting rolls, which “stoked distrust and put our elections at risk.”
Absentee voting by mail starts on September 6, and you have 61 days to do so. Early voting in person starts in 52 days, and Election Day is 85 days away.
A lawsuit was filed in the superior court of Wake County. The defendants are the board as a whole, as well as Chairman Alan Hirsch, Jeff Carmon, Stacy Eggers, Kevin Lewis, Siobhan Millen, and Karen Bell in her role as executive director.
The board was in a lot of trouble in July because of two court cases, an investigation by Congress, and an oversight review by the General Assembly. At first, the state board turned down three requests to recognize parties. In the end, they accepted two of them, and the court told them to approve the third.
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