Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Registration Repair topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
State registration-repair work reduces Buncombe County list of voters missing ID numbers
Summary
Staff updated the board on the state-led registration-repair project. Buncombe County started with 2,087 affected records and reduced that to 1,662 through record review; statewide totals fell from about 103,000 to about 90,185 during the same period.
BUNCOMBE COUNTY — Buncombe County elections staff reported progress on a statewide registration-repair effort the North Carolina State Board of Elections initiated to locate missing driver's license or partial Social Security number data for certain voter records.
Amy, an elections staff member, told the board the state provided a memo instructing counties to search records for voters who lack a driver's license number and who did not check an "I do not have that ID" box on their original registration, and who are not exempt because they registered before February 2004. The state’s multi-stage process requires county record review first; the counties' work is expected to continue through a deadlines phase in August.
"Originally, statewide, the numbers were just over a 103,000 voters," Amy said. "Now as of [the afternoon snapshot], the work is continuously happening, so it's changing by the minute. We now have 90,185 voters that are on the list." She added that Buncombe County started with 2,087 records on the list and that the county’s snapshot that afternoon showed 1,662 remaining, representing roughly 80% completion of local record review.
Amy explained that county staff are searching historical archives and paper records for identifying numbers that were not digitized when records were originally entered. For those records that remain missing after review, the state plans to send up to three mailings (dates to be announced) to give voters an opportunity to update their records.
Board members asked about the state's broader IT work. Duncan said the state has discussed a long-term replacement of the voter-registration system; the figure of $15 million was mentioned during the meeting as a budget request for a new system, but staff said implementation details and timeline remain unclear.
Ending: Staff said Buncombe County would continue record review through mid-August, cooperate with state mailings for those whose records remain incomplete, and report further progress to the board.
