North Carolina Election Board Director Puts Forth Proposal Amid Lawsuit From Trump Admin

North Carolina Board of Elections Director Sam Hayes has put forth a proposal in an apparent attempt to resolve an election-related lawsuit filed by the Trump administration over votes being allegedly counted when they should not have.

This proposal, which must be approved by the board, would consist of contacting voters who have not registered with the board the last four digits of their Social Security number or their driver’s license number.

The lawsuit, filed in May, alleges that North Carolina violated the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) “and the sacred trust that the people of the State of North Carolina have put in them to ensure the fairness and integrity of elections for Federal office in the state, necessitating this litigation.”

Hayes’s proposal consists of three mailings to registered voters to ensure the board receives driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.

The first mailing, which will be in July, to approximately 98,000 voters who registered after HAVA took effect in 2004, will request certain info in order to comply with HAVA. These voters will cast provisional ballots until the information requested is obtained.

The second mailing, which will be later in the summer, will target approximately 96,000 voters who have complied with HAVA but have not registered their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. These voters will still vote on regular ballots.

The third mailing would consist of repeating the first mailing to those who have not submitted the necessary and requested identification.

This proposal comes following a close election for a Supreme Court seat that the Democrats won in 2024.

According to the lawsuit, North Carolina “used a state voter registration form that did not explicitly require a voter to provide a driver’s license or the last four digits of a social security number.”

Additionally, “a significant number of North Carolina voters who did not provide a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a social security number using that voter registration form were nonetheless registered by their election officials, in violation of HAVA,” the lawsuit said.

North Carolina, according to the lawsuit, “only took limited actions to prevent future violations from reoccurring by adopting a new voter registration form that required applicants to provide their driver’s license or last four digits of their social security number, if they had one of those forms of identification.”

Later this year, North Carolina will hold municipal elections.

In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.” It has since been paused by federal courts.