More than 747,000 voters are removed from the voter rolls by NCBOE
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By Cash Michaels
If you have moved within the state since the last election without updating your address, or missed voting in the last two federal elections, there’s a good possibility that you’re among the 747, 274 out of North Carolina’s 7.7 million registered voters who were recently removed from the state’s voting rolls.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCBOE) recently announced that it purged its voting rolls of those registered voters it considers to be ineligible to vote for the 2024 election. The reasons for the purge include moving within the state without notifying the local county board of elections (289,902 removed); failing to vote in two federal elections within the past eight years (246,311); deceased (130,688); moved from the state (31,242); duplicating/merged voter registration (26,939); felony conviction (18,883); request from voter (2,329); other (980).
It is not publicly known how many of the 747,274 removed are either Democrat or Republican. Add to that a lawsuit by the N.C. Republican Party seeking the removal of 225,000 registered voters it says are ineligible because “… certain statutorily required information” was not collected during the registration of those voters.
“List maintenance is one of the primary responsibilities of election officials across North Carolina, and we take this responsibility seriously,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections. “Unfortunately, there is a lot of false information out there about our voter rolls and the efforts we undertake to keep them up to date. As we conduct these processes, we also must comply with state and federal laws and be careful not to remove any eligible voters.”
Bell added that the process of removing ineligible voters from the voting list is ongoing.
Reportedly, county boards of elections removed an average of over 1,200 registered voters a day from the beginning of 2023 to August 2024. Only those voters officially deemed ineligible were removed.
The state Court of Appeals has also ruled that college students attending UNC at Chapel Hill cannot use their approved digital identification as a valid form of voter ID.
Bishop William Barber, co-convener of the Poor People’s Campaign, issued a statement urging North Carolinians to check online to ensure that they are properly registered to vote.
“I encourage you to visit Vote.org/ppc to check your registration status and review important deadlines ahead of the elections. You can also use the link to register to vote, find your local polling place, request an absentee ballot if you need to, and review your ballot ahead of time.”
In-person early voting runs from Thursday, Oct. 17, to Saturday, Nov. 2. The General Election is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Cash Michaels is the senior contributor to The Carolina Peacemaker.
