U.S. Attorney's Office Announces North Carolina Division Of Motor Vehicles Improvements On Voter-Registration Process To Protect Election Integrity

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson announced today that a series of actions to further enhance and protect the integrity of the voter-registration process will be implemented by the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV). This follows a rigorous review by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of ineligible individuals, including illegal aliens, who were improperly registered to vote at the DMV.

In July, the U.S. Attorney initiated an inquiry to the Commissioner of the DMV following a report by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) that the DMV permitted ineligible individuals, such as illegal aliens, to register to vote at the DMV, sometimes without the individual’s knowledge. The investigation found individuals were erroneously given citizen identification cards for years and some were registered to vote even after informing the DMV they were not citizens. The involved DMV examiners initially blamed the error on a “system glitch,” but the DMV later admitted “the online system doesn’t verify citizenship status.” The U.S. Attorney asked the DMV Commissioner to review the voter registration processes to ensure non-eligible voters were not being registered to vote.

The DMV agreed to investigate and found that individuals had been registered to vote due to errors by DMV examiners. These errors included mistakenly marking individuals as U.S. citizens, which “bypassed the necessary legal presence questions and allowed voter registration.”  The DMV also found a “system error” that lasted for three months and permitted ineligible individuals to register to vote.

Following the inquiry by the U.S. Attorney, the DMV has agreed to make changes to safeguard the North Carolina voter rolls and assure election integrity. Some changes include:

• Issuing a statewide reminder to DMV examiners on protocols and safeguards to ensure proper voter registration of only eligible individuals through the DMV.
• Designing and implementing new training modules for DMV examiners with a special emphasis on citizenship verification processes.
• Modernizing DMV technology to streamline technological processes and reduce examiner errors, including of the voter registration component.
• Hiring additional personnel to increase accurate input of sensitive data.
• Actively pursuing a technical solution to effectively integrate citizenship checks into the DMV’s online and kiosk voter-registration application systems.

The DMV is also coordinating with the State Board of Elections to ensure that any ineligible individuals identified by the federal government have been removed from voter rolls.

“It is vitally important than our elections in North Carolina are accurate, fair, and irreproachable—and that the public has confidence in them—to protect the foundation of our democracy,” said U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson. “We must ensure that our voter rolls are precise and do not include minors, felons, or illegal aliens. The DMV, which accounts for as much as 80 percent of voter registrations in a given year, plays a central role in that process. We appreciate the agency’s cooperation to improve processes so that only eligible voters are added to the rolls.”

U.S. Attorney Ferguson also thanked HSI and the State Board of Elections for their coordination during this review process and noted that the U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to monitor compliance at all levels to ensure the sanctity of our elections.

“A host of federal laws give the federal government oversight authority to ensure states maintain accurate and current statewide voter lists,” said U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson. “We take that obligation seriously and will continue to ensure confidence in our elections.”