Latest news with #SamHayes
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
NC elections board launches program to gather missing data for 103K registered voters
The state Board of Elections has undertaken an effort to collect driver's license numbers or partial social security numbers for roughly 103,000 voters whose information is missing from the state's voter rolls. "The Registration Repair Project aims to ensure that North Carolina's voter rolls are as accurate and complete as possible, bring them into compliance with recent state court rulings, and settle a pending lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice," a news release July 18 said. The Department of Justice alleges that North Carolina violated the Help America Vote Act by using a voter registration form that didn't require applicants to provide a driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when registering. Under federal and state law, when a person registers to vote, they must provide that information, which is then used to verify the person's identity. "However, faulty instructions on a voter registration form used in North Carolina for about a decade led some voters to register without providing either number," the release said. "The voter registration form was corrected in January 2024 to make it clear that one of those numbers is required." The state Board of Elections noted that some have inaccurately suggested the effort would remove eligible voters from the rolls. "Instead," Sam Hayes, executive director of the elections board, said in the release, 'it will result in cleaner, more complete voter rolls and full compliance with state and federal laws. He said the office has undergone "great lengths" to streamline and make the process transparent. He said BOE expects the list of voters for which the information is needed "will decrease quickly." The list of voters — including 100 who live in Cumberland County — is available on the NCBOE website at Users can click the Registration Repair button on the home page and search the database by name, street address, voter registration number or county. Voters on the Registration Repair list have three options If you find you're among the 1.3% of N.C. voters whose records need to be updated, you have three options, according to the NCBOE. • Submit an updated voter registration form through the DMV's website at Click 'Continue as Guest' when asked to log into myNCDMV. There is no fee for this service. Click 'Yes' when asked to update your voter information. • Visit your county board of elections office, and they can help you ensure your registration is complete. You will need to have your driver's license number or Social Security number with you. The Cumberland County Board of Elections is located in the E. Newton Smith Center at 227 Fountainhead Lane, Suite 101, in Fayetteville. Office hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit the Cumberland County Board of Elections online at or call 910-678-7733. The Board of Elections will not request your personal information over the phone. • In August, the State Board of Elections will mail letters to individuals who remain on the list at the time the mailing is sent. You can fill out the letter and mail it to the county board of elections in the pre-addressed return envelope enclosed with the letter. Postage is provided on the envelope. The Cumberland County Board of Elections mailing address is 227 Fountainhead Lane, Suite 101, Fayetteville, NC 28301. The NCBOE said that in future elections, if in-person voters are on the list and have not provided the information, they will be required to cast a provisional ballot and provide the information when they vote. This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: NC election board launches Registration Repair Project for voter records Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
DNC threatens to sue North Carolina elections board over plan to purge 100,000 voters
The Democratic National Committee is threatening to sue the North Carolina board of elections if they go forward with plans to purge almost 100,000 voters from the rolls. The state elections board – with a new Republican majority – voted at its 24 June meeting to require registered voters to cast provisional ballots if they have not provided their driver's license number, last four digits of their social security number or an identification number supplied by the state. The board's move comes after the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit requiring voter information under the Help America Vote Act that it alleged had been missing in the state. The North Carolina Court of Appeals ordered the board to seek the information from voters before allowing them to vote in future elections. Sam Hayes, executive director of the state board of elections, said in a statement accompanying the vote that the goal is to bring North Carolina 'into compliance with the law'. 'We are making this process as simple and straightforward as possible for the affected voters,' he said. But Democratic leaders claim the order and the board's response to it is unconstitutional, and argue the change has partisan purposes. 'Republicans who have taken over the North Carolina state board of elections are colluding with President Trump's justice department to take away the voting rights of 98,000 North Carolinians,' said Dan Freeman, litigation director at the Democratic National Committee. 'So the DNC has put the state board of elections on notice: we will fight to protect the rights of registered voters to cast ballots that count.' The DNC asserts that this move violates the National Voter Registration Act, it said in a notice to sue sent to the board Friday. 'Critically, even if a voter on this list casts a provisional ballot and provides their driver's license number or the last four digits of their social security number, their ballot will only be counted if the numbers provided are deemed 'correct,'' the letter states. 'By requiring voters to cast provisional ballots that may not be counted, the plan effectively removes registrants from the official list of eligible voters.' The NVRA requires political parties to provide 90 days notice of their intent to sue if a state enacts policies parties believe violate the law. North Carolina is a perennial battleground state with close contests both in presidential races and state races. Donald Trump won North Carolina by about 183,000 votes in November, but five of the ten statewide executive offices are held by Democrats, including the governor, lieutenant governor and secretary of state. A bitterly close 734-vote win by Democrat Allison Riggs in November for a state supreme court seat devolved into lawsuits and a Republican attempt to throw out thousands of ballots. Her opponent, Jefferson Griffin, only conceded the race in May. A consolidated federal trial hearing a challenge to the state's 2020 redistricting was heard last week by a three-judge panel in Winston-Salem. The NAACP and other voting rights groups accuse the GOP-dominated legislature of violating federal law and the US constitution with electoral maps redrawn in October 2023 that improperly reduce the voting power of racial minorities. Republican lawmakers argue that their maps were drawn to give them partisan advantage – which is legal – and that race was not a consideration in their decision making. The trial consolidates complaints about both state legislative district lines and congressional district lines. Earlier rulings narrowed the scope of the state district dispute to a handful of state senate districts. Under the new district maps, Republicans turned a 7-7 tie in their congressional delegation into a 10-4 majority in November, providing three vital pickups for Republicans who now hold only a 220-212 majority. The court could force the state to redraw maps for the 2026 congressional and state contests, creating an outsized impact on the balance of power in Washington. The three-judge panel said it would not issue a final decision before August and instructed both parties to submit final documents in the case by 5 August.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NC Republicans unveil sweeping elections bill. Could it ‘purge' nonpartisan staff?
North Carolina House Republicans unveiled a broad elections bill that could convert about a third of the State Board of Elections' nonpartisan civil service staff into political appointees, alongside a host of other changes to ballot counting, voter ID and more. Lawmakers released the amended bill, House Bill 958, late Wednesday night and pushed it through a 30-minute committee hearing without public comment on Thursday morning over the objections of Democrats, who said it would lead to a 'purge' of the agency. Rep. Phil Rubin, a Wake County Democrat, said the bill would exempt the agency from 'the rule that you have to hire the best person for the job and that you can't hire and fire based on politics — and I cannot think of an agency where that is more important than the Board of Elections.' The bill is unlikely to get a full vote anytime soon as the legislature plans for an extended summer recess. But it could emerge as a key piece of legislation — and source of debate — once lawmakers return. It comes just a month after Republicans gained a majority on the State Board of Elections and ousted longtime Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell, replacing her with a lawyer who has worked for the state's top Republican lawmakers. If the bill passes, the new director, Sam Hayes, would gain the ability to make 25 positions within the agency exempt from the State Human Resources Act — allowing him to hire and fire them at will. Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Hayes rejected the idea that the bill would lead to a purge, saying instead that it would ensure he 'can put people in these positions that align with my vision for the agency — that is not a partisan vision. 'There are a number of things I've laid out that I would think that anybody, Democrat, Republican or independent or third party could could get on board with,' he said. '... Watch what we do here before you pre-judge it. I have not made any drastic changes and what I'm looking to do is to make elections more efficient, more secure and most importantly, follow the law.' In addition to the staffing changes, the bill also makes a wide variety of amendments to existing election law. Many of these provisions got limited debate time due to the short committee meeting, prompting Democrats to unsuccessfully seek to delay a vote. HB 958 softens some ballot counting deadlines passed last year in Senate Bill 382, a controversial power shift bill passed in the final days of the lame duck legislature's veto-proof Republican supermajority. The bill would give counties more time to count absentee and provisional ballots — though still significantly less than they had before SB 382. Thursday's bill would also ban ranked choice voting statewide, a practice that has never been widely implemented in North Carolina but was recently in the news following the New York City mayoral election and the apparent primary win of Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. HB 958 would also clarify state law to say that a voter's ballot cannot be counted if they die between the time their ballot was cast and 6:30 a.m. on Election Day. This matter drew controversy in the November election after Wake and Rowan counties counted some votes from people who died before Election Day. Another provision in the bill would ban state and county election board members from making partisan political statements — a policy largely already in place. However, Democrats took issue with another portion of this section that appears to prohibit elections officials from encouraging voters to turn out for elections — even in a nonpartisan way. 'We don't want to encourage turnout for a particular candidate, but just at large, I think that we would like for our county and elections administrators to promote voting,' Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Guilford County Democrat, said. Rep. Hugh Blackwell, a Burke County Republican and the committee's chair, said the section was intentional but that changes may come in future versions of the bill. 'The idea is that we want the state board to focus on the conduct of the election and that the responsibility for turnout is better handled by other folks,' he said. 'We were trying to draw a line and we may not have gotten it just at the sweet spot.' The bill also addressed an issue brought about during Jefferson Griffin's unsuccessful six-month legal battle to overturn his loss in the 2024 state Supreme Court election. It would clarify that military and overseas voters are required to provide photo ID to vote. These voters were previously exempted from the requirement, prompting Griffin to challenge thousands of these ballots from voters in Democratic-leaning counties. Thursday is the last day of legislative action before lawmakers leave for a summer recess following the failure of House and Senate Republicans to agree on a comprehensive state budget.
25-06-2025
- Politics
North Carolina to send mailers to about 200,000 voters asking for missing registration info
RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina election officials will send mailers to about 200,000 voters asking them to provide information missing from their state registration records, seeking to address a Republican concern raised during a protracted legal fight over a state Supreme Court seat and a recent U.S. Justice Department lawsuit. The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted unanimously Tuesday to begin contacting voters whose records lack a driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. Last month, the Justice Department sued state election officials, alleging the board had violated federal law by failing to collect the identifying information. The lawsuit was noteworthy because it was filed just weeks after Republicans wrested control of the state elections board away from the state's Democratic governor after years of failed attempts and gave the power of board appointments to the state auditor, a Republican. The law was passed late last year, before Republicans lost their supermajority in the Legislature, which they used to override the governor's veto. The Justice Department sought to force the state board to create a prompt method to obtain the identifying information. Sam Hayes, the board's new executive director, told board members on Tuesday that the department had 'tentatively signed off' on the plan, which involves sending up to three mailers to voters that will include a self-addressed, postage-prepaid return envelope with a form for collecting the information. 'The goal here is to obtain that information as efficiently as possible and satisfy the outstanding litigation here and, of course, comport with federal law,' Hayes said. The previous state board had acknowledged the issue and updated the registration form to make it clear that either a driver's license number or, if a voter didn't have a driver's license, the last four digits of a Social Security number were required. But it decided it was not going to ask voters to provide the information, pointing to the state's voter ID law which confirms a voter's identity. About half the 200,000 affected voters would be limited to casting provisional ballots until they provide the information to the state, Hayes said. The first two mailers combined could cost between $300,000 and $450,000, according to preliminary estimates. Jeff Carmon, one of two Democrats on the five-member board, said he would support the proposal despite concerns the board was requiring voters to act to ensure they can continue to vote. 'It's hard to understand starvation if you've never felt the pangs of hunger,' Carmon said. 'It's the same situation with voting obstacles. Your perspective of an obstacle may not be the same as someone who's consistently had their identity and their validity questioned.' Republicans on the board said the actions were needed to ensure the state's voter lists were accurate and that the request of voters was reasonable to comply with federal law. State GOP officials praised the move. 'The State Board of Elections is acting to correct numerous errors which have been identified for years as issues,' North Carolina GOP Chairman Jason Simmons said in a statement. 'This is an encouraging step toward restoring trust in state elections.' Also Tuesday, the state's 100 county election boards were reconstituted under the same law passed by GOP lawmakers that changed the appointment process for the state board. The state board, as required previously, appointed four of the five members for each county board with an even split between the two major political parties. But instead of the Democratic governor appointing the fifth person, who serves as chair, State Auditor Dave Boliek made the chair selections Tuesday. Like the state board, the appointment changes were expected to give Republicans 3-2 majorities on county boards as well.
Winnipeg Free Press
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
North Carolina to send mailers to some 200,000 voters asking for missing registration info
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina election officials will send mailers to some 200,000 voters asking them to provide information missing from their state registration records, seeking to address a Republican concern raised during a protracted legal fight over a state Supreme Court seat and a recent U.S. Justice Department lawsuit. The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted unanimously Tuesday to begin contacting voters whose records lack a driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. Last month, the Justice Department sued state election officials, alleging the board had violated federal law by failing to collect the identifying information. The lawsuit was noteworthy because it was filed just weeks after Republicans wrested control of the state elections board away from the state's Democratic governor after years of failed attempts and gave the power of board appointments to the state auditor, a Republican. The law was passed late last year, before Republicans lost their supermajority in the Legislature, which they used to override the governor's veto. The Justice Department sought to force the state board to create a prompt method to obtain the identifying information. Sam Hayes, the board's new executive director, told board members on Tuesday that the department had 'tentatively signed off' on the plan, which involves sending up to three mailers to voters that will include a self-addressed, postage-prepaid return envelope with a form for collecting the information. 'The goal here is to obtain that information as efficiently as possible and satisfy the outstanding litigation here and, of course, comport with federal law,' Hayes said. The previous state board had acknowledged the issue and updated the registration form to make it clear that either a driver's license number or, if a voter didn't have a driver's license, the last four digits of a Social Security number were required. But it decided it was not going to ask voters to provide the information, pointing to the state's voter ID law which confirms a voter's identity. About half of the 200,000 affected voters would be limited to casting provisional ballots until they provide the information to the state, Hayes said. The first two mailers combined could cost between $300,000 and $450,000, according to preliminary estimates. Jeff Carmon, one of two Democrats on the five-member board, said he would support the proposal despite concerns the board was requiring voters to act to ensure they can continue to vote. 'It's hard to understand starvation if you've never felt the pangs of hunger,' Carmon said. 'It's the same situation with voting obstacles. Your perspective of an obstacle may not be the same as someone who's consistently had their identity and their validity questioned.' Republicans on the board said the actions were needed to ensure the state's voter lists were accurate and that the request of voters was reasonable to comply with federal law. Also Tuesday, the state's 100 county election boards were reconstituted under the same law passed by GOP lawmakers that changed the appointment process for the state board. The state board, as required previously, appointed four of the five members for each county board with an even split between the two major political parties. But instead of the Democratic governor appointing the fifth person, who serves as chair, State Auditor Dave Boliek made the chair selections Tuesday. Like the state board, the appointment changes were expected to give Republicans 3-2 majorities on county boards as well. __ Cassidy reported from Atlanta.
