State Board of Election approves rule that could strip thousands of voters of their voting rights
RALEIGH, NC — Despite objections from nearly 15,000 people who submitted public comments, voting rights advocacy organizations, and evidence demonstrating the ineffectiveness of a federal database used to identify potential non-citizen voters, the North Carolina State Board of Elections approved a new rule in a 3–2 vote. The rule relies on that unreliable system to purge the voter rolls, putting thousands of eligible voters in the state at risk of losing access to the ballot.
The newly approved rules establish an inadequate, unjust, and insufficient process to determine the eligibility of voters flagged as potential “non-citizens” through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, which has been shown to be notably unreliable, as demonstrated by a 2017 audit conducted by the NCSBE itself and a 2016 national study by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The rules approved by the NCSBE are based on this unreliable information and place the burden on voters to prove their eligibility through a process that requires only a simple notification—available only in English—requiring those affected to attend a hearing and present proof of their citizenship under the threat of being removed from the voter rolls.
“Establishing these new rules based on an unreliable federal system in the middle of an election process could deprive eligible voters—particularly naturalized citizens of Latino origin—of their right to vote in North Carolina,” said Verónica Aguilar, Communications Director at El Pueblo. “This will ultimately undermine the integrity and transparency of our elections and disenfranchise the most vulnerable voters.”
The new rule will particularly impact naturalized Latino immigrants whose last names are misspelled; women whose last names change after marriage; and rural communities with fewer resources to obtain documentation.
Additionally, it creates new barriers to voting access, as it is estimated that 21 million Americans do not have a passport, naturalization certificate, or original birth certificate to prove their citizenship—and obtaining these documents can take months and be costly.
