NC Board of Elections finds 34,000 dead people on voter rolls
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The North Carolina State Board of Elections has identified approximately 34,000 dead people on the state's voter rolls following a comprehensive data comparison with the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, also known as the SAVE database.
The discovery happened during the state board's ongoing effort to verify the citizenship status of registered 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. Our team, along with our state and federal will do what's necessary to meet this responsibility."
Election officials say the identification of deceased people on the voter rolls does not necessarily indicate that illegal votes were cast in their names.
The state board will work with county boards of elections to remove the names from the voter rolls.
