North Carolina finds 34,000 deceased voters on rolls

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - The North Carolina State Board of Elections found about 34,000 deceased individuals on voter rolls after comparing state records with a federal database.

The board submitted 7,397,734 voter records to the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database on Friday, April 17.

The comparison was part of an effort to verify the citizenship status of registered voters, officials said.

“While we expected to find some cases, this is higher than we anticipated,” said Sam Hayes, executive director of the State Board of Elections.

The discovery came during the board’s review to identify non-U.S. citizens on voter rolls. Officials said the process also identifies duplicate registrations, name mismatches and deceased voters.

The State Board says it will verify records and work with county boards of elections to remove deceased individuals from voter rolls. The process includes cross-checking additional state and federal databases before any removal occurs.

Election officials reiterated that list maintenance is required under state and federal law.

The comparison uses voters’ names, dates of birth and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services performs a cross-check with the Social Security Administration.

Officials said the State Board receives information about voters who died in North Carolina from the state Department of Health and Human Services on a weekly basis. The federal database comparison identifies voters who registered in North Carolina, moved to another state and died there.

“The benefit of entering into cross-state and federal database checks is that it allows us to uncover issues like this,” said Hayes. “Our goal is to use every available and legal tool at our disposal to achieve the most accurate voter rolls possible. Now, we must roll up our sleeves and begin the hard work to act of verifying that every person registered to vote in North Carolina is eligible.”