DOJ/ICE Subpoena 44 NC County Board of Elections, NCSBE to Address Friday

RALEIGH – According to reports the U.S. Department of Justice, on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has subpoenaed 44 county board of elections across the state.

Developing – DOJ on behalf of ICE subpoenas 44 NC county board of elections. @NCSBE plans to address on Friday. This comes as election nears. #ncpol pic.twitter.com/c0uSFTzL89

— Russ Bowen (@RussBowenWNCN) September 5, 2018

A public meeting will be held via teleconference on Friday September 7 at 10:00 AM, and on the tentative schedule is consideration of the subpoenas from ICE.

The subpoena asks for the boards to present five years of old ballots and election data. The boards have said such a task would be an undue burden with the election looming.

Indeed, the counties would need to produce the requested material by September 25, which is right around the time absentee ballots are being shipped and the election essentially begins.

The counties in question are nearly the whole eastern region of the state, stretching from Wake County east to the coast:

It will be interesting to find out exactly what the federal authorities are looking for in these counties, and how it could play into the debate over Voter ID and illegal immigration. Activists on the Left are already spinning a race narrative pointing to the demographic composition of of these counties.

Crazy how this list almost perfectly aligns with a list of NC counties ranked by the percentage of registered voters who are black. Must be a total coincidence!

— Truman Chipotle (@LoganJames) September 5, 2018

The Left is responding with the tried and true ‘You’re racists!’ narrative, of course. The social justice outfit the Southern Poverty Law Center is blasting the subpoena as intimidation and blasting the State Board of Elections for essentially doing it’s job by referring cases of voter fraud for prosecution.

But this line from the Left doesn’t touch the ICE component to the whole thing. Or, how the whole eastern block of the state contains the agricultural base that supports the largest population of migrant labor in the state, legal or illegal. That represents a whole lot of UN-registered voters who are not citizens, and with ICE knocking at the door of half the state’s county board of elections it doesn’t portend good news. That would seem to represent far more than the “ineligible voting”  cases from 2016 the SPLC argues are not  that bad.

This story is sure to develop much more in the coming days. We’ll bring you the latest as the meeting gets underway Friday.