Inquiries checking rolls of voters

State auditor, feds cite irregularities

RALEIGH -- State and federal officials are mounting two broad challenges to the way North Carolina maintains its voter rolls, charging widespread irregularities that include votes cast under the names of dead people.

The accusations attempt to call into question the accuracy of registration records and election returns from 2004 to the present.

So far, though, the officials have not made public any evidence of irregularities, and N.C. election officials argue that the state's maintenance of voter rolls is among the most careful and comprehensive programs in the country.

In a letter two months ago, the Justice Department said it was reviewing North Carolina's voter rolls and had found irregularities in the number of people registered to vote. Similar reviews have led to lawsuits against election officials in seven other states.

The second broad challenge is from State Auditor Les Merritt, a Republican. His office began a review of the state's voter rolls in January and presented preliminary findings to the State Board of Elections last week.

According to the board, Merritt's staff cited 24,821 invalid driver's license numbers in the voter registration database, 380 people who appear to have voted after their dates of death and others under age 18 when they voted.

Gary Bartlett, executive director of the elections board, responded Wednesday with a 10-page letter declaring many of those findings invalid. Your "office appears to have a fundamental misunderstanding about the data that was reviewed or about the federal and State laws governing the voter registration process," Bartlett, a Democratic appointee, wrote in the letter, which he provided to lawmakers Thursday.

For example, Bartlett said, many of the people who appear to have voted after their dates of death voted absentee, then died before Election Day.

At least some people under 18 who voted did so legally, Bartlett said, because state law allows 17-year-olds to vote in a primary election if they will be 18 the day of the general election.

Bartlett said North Carolina's regular maintenance of voter rolls resulted in 725,499 names removed during a recent 19-month period. Most had been inactive, moved or died.

The dispute has drawn the attention of leading state lawmakers. Two lawmakers, including Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Charlotte Democrat, are asking Merritt to appear at a hearing Tuesday to explain his work. Bartlett is also invited.