North Carolina election officials say a routine federal database check just turned up roughly 34,000 deceased people still listed on the state’s voter rolls, an “added benefit,” they say, of a broader citizenship verification push.
The find will now kick off a slower, less dramatic process: county-by-county reviews, formal notices and a verification phase before any registrations are actually canceled. Officials are stressing that dead names on the list do not automatically mean illegal votes were cast, and they insist counties will be required to provide due process as the State Board of Elections ramps up data-sharing with other agencies.
How The List Was Found
In an April 27 news release, the North Carolina State Board of Elections said it submitted 7,397,734 voter records to the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database on April 17 as part of a statewide citizenship verification initiative.
According to the board, SAVE uses voters’ names, dates of birth and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers to spot potential matches. The same comparison can flag duplicate registrations and name mismatches. The agency said it will now work with county boards to cross-check other state and federal databases and to provide due process before any registration is removed.
“While we expected to find some cases, this is higher than we anticipated,” Sam Hayes, the board’s executive director, said in the North Carolina State Board of Elections statement, adding that staff will “roll up our sleeves” and work with state and federal partners to verify each flagged record.
The release also noted that for deaths that occur in North Carolina, the board already relies on weekly reports from the Department of Health and Human Services. SAVE, by contrast, is more likely to catch voters who left the state while alive and died elsewhere, leaving their North Carolina registrations untouched until an out-of-state record surfaces.
What The Board Will Do Next
Local outlets jumped on the story. As reported by WBTV, the board emphasized that the discovery “does not necessarily indicate that illegal votes were cast.” WRAL reported that officials plan to work with county boards to verify each flagged registration, noting that deaths reported in other states can leave North Carolina voter records active until those interagency data finally line up.
The announcement comes as the board moves to tighten how it maintains its voter list. Earlier this month, the Raleigh News & Observer reported that the board approved rules that allow voter data to be uploaded to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and that let officials challenge registrations flagged by SAVE.
Those changes are arriving on the heels of a massive mailing that turned heads: 241,000 North Carolinians were told to fix their records because of missing ID information. The new rules and that mailing drew thousands of public comments and a heated in-person hearing, signaling just how touchy anything involving voter rolls has become.
Legal Questions And What Happens Next
For now, the board says counties have to stick to established procedures and give affected voters a chance to respond before any registration is canceled.
Critics counter that SAVE was never built for vetting voters and has known data gaps. WRAL noted that a 2016 state audit found just 41 ballots cast by noncitizens out of millions of votes, a statistic election administrators often cite when arguing that the current effort is about accuracy and housekeeping rather than uncovering systemic fraud.
Still, the mix of expanded data sharing, a new challenge process and a very large number of flagged registrations has voting rights advocates worried about potential errors and extra hurdles for eligible voters caught in the dragnet.
How To Check Your Registration
Voters who want to make sure their own registration is in good shape can look up their status online or call their county board of elections. County offices will be responsible for confirming deaths and sending notices before taking any action.
Under the new rules, counties must confirm that a challenged voter received notice and had time to respond before removing anyone from the rolls, the Raleigh News & Observer reported.
