Special to IFN
RALEIGH — The N.C. State Board of Elections has identified approximately 34,000 deceased individuals on the state’s voter rolls following a comprehensive data comparison with the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.
On April 17, the Elections Board submitted 7,397,734 voter records to the SAVE system as part of its initiative to strengthen the accuracy and integrity of the state’s voter registration list.
The discovery comes as an added benefit of the Board’s ongoing effort to verify the citizenship status of registered voters. The primary goal of comparing voter registration records with the SAVE database is to identify any non-U.S. citizens on the voter rolls and ensure that only eligible individuals are registered to vote in North Carolina. Officials expected this process will also help identify other anomalies such as duplicate registrations, name mismatches and, as highlighted here, deceased voters.
“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 benefit of entering into cross-state and federal database checks is that it allows us to uncover issues like this. 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.”
Election officials emphasize that list maintenance is a routine and necessary function to ensure compliance with state and federal law. The identification of deceased individuals on the voter rolls does not mean that illegal votes were cast in their names, but it does underscore the importance of regular updates and strong interagency coordination.
The State Board will follow established procedures to verify records and will work with county boards of elections to remove deceased individuals from the voter rolls in accordance with state and federal law. These processes include cross-checking additional state and federal databases and providing due process before any removal occurs.
The comparison criteria for a SAVE database search uses voters’ names, dates of birth, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers sent to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), who then perform a cross check with the Social Security Administration.
For voters who have passed away in North Carolina, the State Board receives information from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, a process that occurs weekly and is handled at the county level. This new process of matching state voter records with the SAVE database where the result shows a person is deceased in federal records will help identify those voters who registered here at one time and then moved and passed away in another state.