In May 2025, the Trump administration alleged that the state board of elections violated federal law because over 200,000 of its voter registration records lack a driver’s license number and the last four digits of the voter’s social security number. The administration has asked a federal court to order the state board to contact voters to ask for this information — even though most have already provided it and it is not required to have either of these numbers to be eligible to vote.
Eight North Carolina voters, the NAACP North Carolina State Conference, and the League of Women Voters of North Carolina filed a motion to intervene, represented by the Brennan Center, Forward Justice, and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. In the motion, we argue that impacted voters and groups must be able to participate in this case to defend their fundamental right to vote.
Background
The Trump administration claims that the state used a voter registration form before 2024 that failed to require an applicant to provide a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their social security number, if the applicant had either. As a result, the lawsuit alleges, the state’s voter registration database violates the 2002 Help America Vote Act because it contains voter registration records that lack one of these numbers or a unique ID number. To that end, the Trump administration has asked that a federal court order the state board to identify and contact voters who allegedly lack identification information and ask them to provide it again.
A voter’s registration record may not have this information due to a clerical or technical error, or because the voter does not have a driver’s license or social security number, or because the voter registered before federal law required this information — in other words, through no fault of the voter. In fact, most of the voters asking to join this case provided their driver’s license or social security number when they registered. Yet somehow those numbers did not make it into the state’s voter registration database.
The allegations are the latest in a nearly two-year saga of complaints attempting to exclude North Carolina voters from the democratic process. That saga includes a 2023 administrative complaint that questioned the registrations of over 200,000 voters; a lawsuit filed by the Republican Party before the 2024 election that sought to remove these voters; and an effort following the 2024 election by the losing candidate in the North Carolina Supreme Court race, who attempted to toss over 60,000 legally cast ballots. Now, despite following the steps required of them at the time of registration, over 200,000 voters are having their ability to remain registered to vote threatened again.
Our brief
The motion to intervene argues that the voices of impacted voters and groups who work to support voters are missing from this case. The individual voters who seek to intervene in this case provided the information asked of them when they registered. Many have gone above and beyond what any voter should have to do to attempt to fix an alleged problem with their registration records—a problem which is no fault of their own and over which they have no control. Voters in this situation have faced investigations or lawsuits for the past year and a half alleging their voter registration records lack required information. In this case, the state might agree to or be ordered to contact all voters who supposedly lack these numbers in their registration files. Indeed, just days after the complaint was filed, the newly appointed executive director of the state board said that it is his “focus” to collect this missing information. Affected voters who cannot be reached or are unable to respond in the permitted timeframe could be removed from the voter rolls. As the brief concludes, impacted voters and groups have a significant and unique stake in the outcome of this case. They should be granted a chance to litigate it.
Case updates
This motion is pending.
Learn more
· From Kendall Verhovek: North Carolinians Go to Court to Protect Their Right to Vote
