About NC elections . . .

Joyce McCloy, who runs the NC Coalition for Verified Voting, has been working overtime to set the record straight on issues related to voting in our state. Here’s one of the points she’s raised in her latest e-mail alerts: NC has not purged voters with the intent to disenfranchise anyone.

Joyce was responding to a story in the New York Times which included North Carolina in a list of states that have undergone voter purges in the last few years. But there are purges, and then there are purges, and I think it’s important to let folks know how far NC has gone not to remove legitimate voters from the rolls.

From my hometown paper, the Greensboro News & Record:

Times story on voter databases called ‘very misleading’

The Times story said that North Carolina has been warned that it was checking an abnormally large number of social security numbers against a federal database and that federal officials were worried the state could be improperly excluding voters.

But Elections Director Gary Bartlett said Social Security Numbers were only being checked in the case when a drivers’ license or other acceptable form of identification has not been provided.

No one is denied registration if their Social Security number does not match, said Bartlett and local elections officals.

Joyce goes on to make these points:

NC Election Officials do their best to avoid making unfair purges of the voting rolls, and do not conduct “purges” in the 90 day lead up to the election. Officials here have stood up to several efforts by weighty officials:

The State Board of Elections rebuffed efforts by DOJ John Tanner, a posterboy for voter purges – earlier this year when Tanner sent a letter to the NC State Board of Elections advising them that they needed to trim the rolls. NC had too many voters! See Why is the DoJ Snooping Into NC’s Voter Rolls.

The State Board also fought off the attempts of the partisan state auditor who wanted more voters removed from the rolls. The auditor ended up having to back away from his charges.

North Carolina got rid of the “No Match No Vote” law last year, thanks to NC Verified Voting’s efforts. (See Making Sure It Counts) Thanks to that change, when a voter doesn’t match, they are still registered and will get a regular ballot if they show some sort of ID at the polling place.

Of course, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and that’s why you should a) vote early, b) vote early, or c) at least check your registration before Election Day. It can’t hurt.