The nonprofit election integrity group Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE) has filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE), aimed to ensure that eligible citizens, and eligible citizens only, can vote in the state’s elections, per the state’s constitution.
The group made this announcement in a Wednesday press release, explaining that North Carolina’s constitution “specifically requires individuals to reside in the state in order to vote.” The issue centers around a state statute, which RITE says conflicts with the state’s constitution, as it allows “those to vote who claim to be citizens but have never resided in North Carolina or even the United States.”
RITE says this is fundamentally unconstitutional, and therefore, the statue must be made obsolete to further ensure election integrity, with ballots of eligible citizen residents being the only ones that are counted.
The nonprofit also accuses the NCSBE of directing county officials to “disregard important voter ID requirements for these voters.”
It explains:
Federal and state laws require officials to match individuals’ driver’s license or the last four digits of social security numbers when they register to vote. When officials are unable to verify these numbers when checking official databases, the federal Help America Vote Act (“HAVA”) and state law require these voters to provide ID when returning their ballots. Federal law exempts military and certain overseas voters from this ID requirement, but not those have never resided in the United States. The NCSBE has unlawfully applied this federal exemption to these voters and they must be stopped.
RITE CEO and President Derek Lyons said in a statement it is abundantly clear that North Carolina’s constitution requires eligible voters to have residency in the state. Yet, this statue allows some to circumvent this basic requirement.
“However, the state is permitting individuals who have never resided in North Carolina, let alone the United States, to vote in all of the state’s elections, from President down to local offices,” he said. “To make matters worse, the state’s Board of Elections has instructed county officials to ignore important laws that help verify the citizenship and identity of these ‘never resided’ voters.
Ultimately, Lyons said his organization is “confident that the courts will order North Carolina to end its unlawful practices that are undermining citizens’ confidence in overseas voting.”
The election integrity efforts of this nonprofit coincide with those made by the revamped Republican National Committee (RNC) and Trump campaign, unveiling their extensive election integrity program earlier this year, which now features more than 200,000 poll watchers and an extensive legal network to challenge nefarious behavior.
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“Every ballot. Every precinct. Every processing center. Every county. Every battleground state. We will be there,” RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump said at the time.