A new audit has discovered over 1,400 registered voters on North Carolina’s voting rolls are likely not citizens of the United States.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections revealed Friday that it looked at data from the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles and Department of Homeland Security and found that 1,425 are likely non-citizens and therefore ineligible to vote.
“We are working to ensure that no ballot cast by a non-citizen will count in this or any future election,” State Board of Elections Executive Director Kim Westbrook Strach said in a statement. “Our ongoing partnership with DMV strengthens the integrity of our elections process and security of the voter rolls.”
Of those non-citizens on the voting rolls, the State Board of Elections confirmed that 109 illegal immigrants who have been shielded from deportation and allowed to obtain work permits and drivers licenses through President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, are included in the voting rolls. They are also ineligible to vote.
The revelation comes with the midterm elections less than two weeks away, including a squeaker U.S. Senate race between incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan (NC-D) and state House Speaker Thom Tillis, a Republican.
A new study highlighted last week speculated that illegal, non-citizen votes have swayed past elections for Democrats.
The State Board of Elections said that it would be providing election officials protocol to challenge ballots from individuals identified as non-citizens, including offering the would-be voter the opportunity to prove his or her citizenship.
There are more than 6.6 million registered voters in North Carolina. Most of the non-citizen registered voters were found in Guilford (115), Mecklenburg (313), and Wake (252) counties.