70,000 Voters Must Fix Their Registrations or Face Hurdle at the Polls 

Through no fault of their own, more than 70,000 North Carolinians could hit an extra obstacle when trying to cast a ballot in this year’s primaries. 

If they don’t update their voter registration information to include their driver’s license number, the last four digits of their Social Security number, or provide another relevant identification document, those voters must cast provisional ballots, which are rejected at much higher rates than other methods of voting.

The missing information gained national attention during the prolonged 2024 state Supreme Court race, when Republican Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin challenged tens of thousands of votes cast by people whose voter registrations didn’t include their driver’s license or Social Security numbers, as required by federal law. A federal judge ruled against Griffin’s challenge because it came after ballots were cast, but state election officials ultimately said 103,270 voters needed to “repair” their registrations before they voted again.

State officials, party activists, and voter access groups have spent the last six months combing through the list of impacted voters on the State Board of Elections (NCSBE) “Registration Repair” database to encourage them to fill out the paperwork. 

In the first month, more than 20,000 North Carolinians got off the list, state data shows. But in the five months since, fewer than 12,000 people have had their names removed, including just 1,500 since candidate filing ended on December 19.

NCSBE officials say many letters have been returned as undeliverable, while activists say phone calls have gone unanswered, and the few voters who respond are often confused as to why their registration is suddenly an issue.

NCSBE Executive Director Sam Hayes said he thought more people would complete their registrations as the election drew nearer.

“I think people will be more motivated to get out and vote, and, hopefully, they’ll understand that they need to correct their registrations prior to that so that their experience at the polling place is as seamless as possible,” Hayes said in an interview. 

Poll workers will give voters on the Registration Repair list a provisional ballot, which is commonly used by people who forget their identification or show up at the wrong polling place. The ballots count if election officials can determine that the voter was eligible, so as long as people on the repair list bring a driver’s license, Social Security number, or another compliant document, their provisional ballot should be accepted. “They will be able to vote, and we will hopefully validate that information,” Hayes said.

Every Vote Counts

In 2023, a conservative activist discovered an issue with the state’s voter registration form that had been used in Democratic and Republican administrations. The form appeared to make it optional for voters to enter their Social Security number or driver’s license number, in apparent violation of the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which requires one of those numbers.

After learning of the problem, the Democrat-controlled NCSBE changed the form, but it didn’t require the people with missing information to update their registrations. 

A state GOP lawsuit over the registrations was rejected because a President Trump-appointed judge said it was filed too close to the election; Griffin’s challenge would ultimately lose in court, too. Meanwhile, Republican state lawmakers passed a sweeping new law in 2024 that shifted control of state and county elections boards from Democrats to Republicans. 

When Republicans took control of the NCSBE in 2025, the Trump administration sued, arguing that election officials violated HAVA by allowing thousands of voters to register without the required information. The Registration Repair Project was part of the deal the NCSBE came up with to settle the Trump lawsuit.

In the 2024 general election, about 60% of the more than 65,000 provisional ballots cast were rejected. For this year’s elections, voters will have three days after Election Day to fix problems with their ballots, down from nine days before the 2024 law. 

Last fall’s municipal elections were the first in which people on the repair list who didn’t provide the necessary information had to cast provisional ballots. But it didn’t seem to be much of a problem. 

Of the 1,085 voters on the state’s Registration Repair list who cast provisional ballots in the 2025 municipal elections, all but 17 counted, according to Common Cause North Carolina. The 98.4% provisional ballot acceptance rate among voters on the repair list is far higher than historical provisional ballot acceptance rates.

The left-leaning advocacy group said the 17 rejected ballots included 10 Black voters, two mixed-race individuals, one Hispanic person, and four white people.

Common Cause director Sailor Jones added one caveat: The group couldn’t quantify how many voters walked away from voting sites last year rather than go through the provisional ballot process.

Jones said his organization has held a number of town halls to encourage activists to help comb through the remaining list of more than 70,000 voters.

“We are encouraging people to look up themselves and their friends and neighbors, determine whether they are indeed on this list, and be a part of a movement that can really reach to their county boards of elections,” Jones said. 

Motivated Voters

Michael Bitzer, a Catawba College political scientist, warned against reading too much into last year’s provisional ballot acceptance rate.

“I would not try to make any correlation between the two [election cycles],” Bitzer said.

That’s because odd-year municipal elections have the lowest voter turnout. They tend to bring in some of the most politically engaged people in their communities. So while nearly everyone in the repair group who had to cast a provisional ballot in 2025 may have brought the right documentation, that may not be the case in the 2026 primary and general elections. In a higher turnout election, more people may have their ballots rejected.

Many of the more than 71,000 people on the Registration Repair list as of January 23 are infrequent voters. Only 2.5% of them voted in the 2022 primary election and 14.8% in the 2022 general election, according to data Bitzer provided.

While 2026 turnout could be higher due to the high-profile U.S. Senate race in North Carolina, it will still pale in comparison to the 2024 presidential election cycle, when 4% of those on the Registration Repair list cast a ballot in the primary, and 31.5% did so in the general election.

Votes for Democratic candidates are potentially more likely to be rejected this year than Republicans.

An analysis from Bitzer and Chris Cooper, professor of political science and public affairs at Western Carolina University, found voters on the original Registration Repair list were overwhelmingly younger and unaffiliated. The average age was less than 39, which was far younger than the statewide voter average of 51. Younger voters tend to lean more to the Democratic side, even when they aren’t registered with a party.

From the original Registration Repair list, 63% of voters were unaffiliated (voters who do not identify with a political party are automatically labeled this way), 23% were Democrats, and 14% were Republicans.

‘They’ve Never Had Any Problems Before’

Both political parties are trying to avoid any of their supporters having their ballots tossed out.

Anderson Clayton, chair of the state Democratic Party, said the party’s canvassing system flags voters who are on the Registration Repair list so volunteers knocking on doors can offer added support.

“We’re trying to do everything we can to notify people of this, but it is hard to help people understand, ‘You are being singled out out of the millions of voters in this state right now to go fix your voter registration.’”

The state party has held seven events mobilizing supporters to get people off the list.

After four phone banks and three in-person canvassing days in 2025, Democrats had made 80,000 points of contact, according to the state party. This includes leaving voicemails, knocking on doors, or reaching someone by phone or in person. Each form of outreach represents a contact point.

Democrats found they were four times more likely to get a voter removed from the Registration Repair list when they made in-person contact.

“The biggest problem has been people not knowing that they’re on the list and not understanding why,” said Cat Lawson, voter protection director for the NCDP. “Most of the voters that we’re talking to have been voters for a long time. They’ve never had any problems before. They have to be persuaded that this is a problem, educated on what it is, and reminded that they’ve done nothing wrong.” 

Clayton said she hopes a door-knocking campaign with 150 to 200 field organizers across the state closer to the general election will make a dent in the Registration Repair list.

Matt Mercer, a spokesman for the state Republican Party, said the GOP has also made efforts to remove voters from the list by having volunteers and county organizers look through the database to identify and contact registered Republican voters.

“We just methodically work through the list,” Mercer said. “It’s also an opportunity for county leadership people to have experience reaching out and contacting folks.”

Hayes, the NCSBE executive director, said he hopes this is a short-term problem: “Hopefully, before the 2028 presidential election, this will be largely behind us.”