Civitas Institute Sues To Stop Final NC Vote Count, Citing Same-day Registration Concerns

The Civitas Institute, a non-profit policy organization based in Raleigh, North Carolina, announced that it has filed a federal lawsuit against the State Board of Elections to stop the final statewide vote count in this month’s election over concerns about same-day registration.

The suit is centered around more than 90,000 people who registered to vote and voted on the same day prior to the November 8th general election.

In their lawsuit, the Civitas Institute asserts that there’s not enough time between their registration and the State Board of Elections counting their ballots for the local county boards of election to verify applicants’ addresses.

Under state election laws, County boards mail new applicants notices to verify their addresses; if the notices are sent back as “undeliverable,” the voters’ registrations aren’t valid. The process takes up to 30 days if the boards act promptly, the lawsuit says.

Civitas President Francis De Luca said in a statement posted on the organization’s website, “To count ballots without verification of same-day registration information discriminates by treating one class of voters differently from another. Furthermore, this calls into question the outcome of close elections such as the one we are still in the middle of in North Carolina.”

“Legitimate voters should never have their votes cancelled by illegitimate voters. The State Board of Elections should examine every ballot cast via same-day registration to verify that every vote cast is genuine and legitimate,” De Luca continued.

You can read the Civitas Institute’s lawsuit that was filed in Eastern District federal court here.

And you can read the complaint sent to the NC State Board of Elections here.