RNC reaches deal with NC election board to remove noncitizens using jury lists
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- RNC and board reach deal to use jury questionnaires to find noncitizens on voter rolls.
- Settlement sets timeline for list maintenance and potential SBI referrals.
- Agreement awaits judge approval; North Carolina Asian Americans Together withheld consent.
National Republicans agreed to settle a lawsuit with the North Carolina State Board of Elections on Tuesday regarding the removal of noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls.
The agreement, if approved by a judge in Wake County Superior Court, would require election officials to use jury questionnaire responses to identify noncitizens who may be registered to vote and remove them from the rolls, if warranted.
“It is straightforward: if someone admits they are not a citizen when they are considered for jury duty, that same information should be used to ensure they are not registered to vote,” RNC Chair Joe Gruters said in a statement. “Election officials have a clear responsibility to uphold the law, and the RNC is taking action to make sure that non-citizens are removed from North Carolina’s voter rolls.”
The State Board of Elections, which has argued in the past that it already complied with the policy in question, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Numerous studies — both nationally and in North Carolina — have found noncitizen voting to be exceedingly rare, even as Republicans make claims of widespread election fraud.
The Republican National Committee and the NC GOP first sued over the jury list issue in the run-up to the 2024 elections.
The state legislature had recently enacted a new law directing the usage of jury questionnaire responses — which ask those summoned if they are U.S. citizens — to conduct list maintenance on the state’s voter rolls.
Republicans accused the State Board of Elections, which at the time had a 3-2 Democratic majority, of failing to comply with this law.
A spokesperson for the board said at the time that the claims were “categorically false” and that the agency had already identified nine potential noncitizens on the rolls using the jury questionnaires.
The lawsuit lay dormant for months after the election, until this week, when the RNC filed a proposed settlement reached with the elections board, which now has a Republican majority.
The settlement sets up a timeline for the board to receive and use the jury questionnaires to identify and remove noncitizens from the rolls.
It also directs election officials to provide information to the State Bureau of Investigation if records show that the voter in question cast a ballot prior to becoming a U.S. citizen.
While the board and the RNC have agreed to the settlement, intervening parties in the case — advocacy groups North Carolina Asian Americans Together and El Pueblo — have not consented to it.
