DNC accuses NC of colluding with Trump administration over missing voter data
A plan to resolve a Trump administration lawsuit and collect missing information from nearly 200,000 North Carolina voters could wrongfully prevent many of them from voting, the Democratic National Committee contended in a letter sent to state election officials Friday.
In a statement, DNC Litigation Director Dan Freeman accused the State Board of Elections, which recently flipped to Republican control, of “colluding with President Trump’s Justice Department to take away the voting rights of 98,000 North Carolinians.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the board said they believe the plan “fully complies with state and federal law, and we expect that it will also receive approval from the United States Department of Justice.”
The plan, which was approved in a unanimous, bipartisan vote last month, would attempt to collect missing driver’s license or Social Security numbers from 194,000 voters. About half of those voters could face barriers to making their ballots count if they don’t respond by the next election.
The missing information has recently formed the basis for several high-profile legal cases, including Jefferson Griffin’s unsuccessful attempt to overturn his loss to Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs in the 2024 state Supreme Court election.
Following Griffin’s loss, the U.S. Department of Justice sued over the issue, alleging that it could lead to fraud — though it provided no evidence of it happening.
Working with the DOJ to address the issue, the board approved a plan wherein the affected voters will receive a series of mailers throughout the summer urging them to update their records with their local election board. County election boards will also be instructed to conduct their own review of the affected voters to determine if they already have the information in their records but failed to include it in the state database.
Election officials have frequently noted that the missing information does not necessarily indicate fraud or an error on the part of the voter. In fact, their records indicate that roughly half of the affected voters did provide the identifying information, but it does not appear in the state’s database due to clerical errors or name-matching issues.
However, 98,000 voters whom the state says never provided the information will have to cast provisional ballots in future elections until they do so. That triggers a special review of each ballot after Election Day and could result in their vote being thrown out.
The DNC’s letter, which threatened legal action if the State Board of Elections doesn’t reverse course, says this would “effectively remove” the affected voters from the official list of eligible voters.
The board has not yet released a list of the affected voters, but it plans to send out the first round of mailers notifying them sometime this month.
This story was originally published July 11, 2025 at 5:07 PM.
