The Caucus: Return to Sender

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Return to Sender

When the North Carolina State Board of Elections announced last month that it would send mailers to roughly 194,000 N.C. residents directing them to update their registration information, I wanted to know which groups would be most impacted. So I made a records request for a list of names. On Friday, I got preliminary data.

You may recall that these are voters whose registrations are missing some information in state databases. The voters did nothing wrong, but elections officials (and the Trump administration) have said they need to update their information. 

The first batch of mailers is going out to 103,270 North Carolinians. Those who don’t respond may have to complete a provisional ballot the next time they vote. 

Tens of thousands of additional voters who met registration requirements another way, such as providing an alternative form of ID, will be able to vote as normal. But the NCSBE plans to send them a mailer later in the summer asking them to respond with their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number so that voter rolls are up to date.

I was only able to obtain information about the first group. (The state elections board is still combing through its database to identify the second group.)

Here’s what you should know:

Young Folks

The average age of a North Carolina voter is 51.4 years. The average age of the voters with incomplete registrations: 38.9 years. 

Why the difference? Congress passed a law in 2002 spelling out what data states must collect from voters in order to process their registrations. But starting in 2013, North Carolina’s registration form unintentionally appeared to make filling out a driver’s license number or Social Security number optional. In 2023, the NCSBE fixed its form. It makes sense that people who registered during that 10-year span are likely to be younger than the average voter.

Party On

The 103,270 voters are 63% unaffiliated, 23% Democratic, and 14% Republican. Compared to the state voting population, this is a 26-point overrepresentation of unaffiliated voters, 9-point underrepresentation of Democrats, and 16-point underrepresentation of Republicans. That’s also probably explained by the years when the misleading form was in use. The unaffiliated category has been on the rise in North Carolina in recent years.

Griffin List

In last year’s never-ending Supreme Court race, Republican Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin sought to have 60,273 voters removed from the count over what he said were incomplete registrations. The NCSBE’s list of people who now need to update their registrations includes 27,370 people who were on Griffin’s list.

In other words: Nearly half of the people Griffin challenged over incomplete registration risk having to cast a provisional ballot in the next election. But more than half of those he challenged did have all the necessary information on file with the state.

Hat Tip

Thank you to Western Carolina University political scientist Chris Cooper for helping sift through the data and put his computing powers to work. You can also read his more in-depth analysis here.

Get Off the List

The NCSBE has said it’ll update its list to remove those who have updated their registration paperwork. As of Monday afternoon, 1,143 have been taken off the list.

Here’s how you can resolve outstanding clerical issues:

BY MAIL: The State Board of Elections will mail letters in early August to people who remain on the list. People who haven’t already taken Steps 1 or 2 can fill out the letter and mail it to the county board of elections in the pre-addressed, prepaid return envelope enclosed with the letter.

ONLINE: If you are a registered driver, submit an updated voter registration form through the DMV’s website at payments.ncdot.gov. This is free. Click “Continue as Guest” when asked to log in to myNCDMV. Next, click “Yes” when asked to update your voter information.

IN PERSON: Bring your driver’s license or Social Security number to your local county elections board office. You can locate your county elections office here.

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Thanks for reading The Caucus, a politics newsletter anchored by Bryan Anderson. Reach us with tips or ideas at politics@theassemblync.com.

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Back in Session

The House and Senate will return on July 29 to override seven of Gov. Josh Stein’s vetoes, according to the House calendar and Senate leader Phil Berger.

Berger announced on Monday that his chamber would also consider a bill “to implement President Trump’s school choice tax credit program.”

Stein has vetoed 14 bills this year: seven House bills and seven Senate bills. 

Senate Republicans could override all of Stein’s vetoes because they have a supermajority. House Republicans, however, are one seat shy of a supermajority. This means they need at least one House Democrat to cross party lines or two Democrats to be absent when a vote is called, assuming all Republicans are present.

— Bryan Anderson

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Lawsuit over 2018 raid settled for $325,000

A Moore County man has won a $325,000 settlement in a federal lawsuit over a 2018 raid on his home. A federal appellate court ruled that law-enforcement officers lacked probable cause and hid evidence from federal prosecutors. 

Lee Marvin Harris Sr., a Black pastor and a community activist, had just stepped into the shower on February 20, 2018 when officers with the Southern Pines Police Department banged on his door. Officers seized 88 grams of cocaine and 13 grams of cocaine base from his covered, inoperable Cadillac. Harris denied the drugs belonged to him, and officers found no drug contraband in Harris’ home. But Harris was arrested and spent five months in the Moore County Jail under a $5 million bond. Moore County prosecutors dismissed charges against him, but he was indicted on similar charges in federal court. He spent another five months on house arrest. 

Then, on December 14, 2018, the federal case against Harris was dismissed and prosecutors revealed that Southern Pines police officers had secretly surveilled Harris’ son and seen him placing illegal drugs in Harris’ Cadillac. Harris filed a federal lawsuit in July 2023 over the incident, arguing that the officers violated his constitutional rights. After a judge granted a motion in the officers’ favor, Harris appealed to the Fourth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

In a 2-1 decision in 2024, the federal appellate court ruled in Harris’ favor, concluding that the three officers—Jason Perry, Kyle Marsh, and Sean Lowery—had no probable cause to arrest Harris. Judge Roger Gregory wrote that officers knew Harris’ son used a storage locker to keep and sell his drugs and had surveillance footage of him appearing to place something inside his father’s car. The officers never saw Harris near his vehicle during their surveillance of his home. They were also aware that Harris’ car didn’t work, and the packaging of the drugs found in Harris’ car matched the packaging of cocaine found at the house of his son’s supplier.

Gregory concluded that the officers did not disclose that information about the surveillance before federal prosecutors sought indictments against Harris. 

Abraham Rubert-Schewel, Harris’ attorney, announced the settlement last week. The lawsuit  was voluntarily dismissed October 17, 2024, but Rubert-Schewel said Harris wanted to delay the announcement because he worried about people asking him for money. 

Harris said in a statement that the victory is bittersweet because the officers still work for the police department. 

“I trust that with this outcome, the Town will take a long look at their records and determine whether these are the types of officers we should be spending taxpayer money on,” Harris said.

Both police officials and Southern Pines Town Manager Reagan Parsons referred questions to Town Attorney Mac McCarley, who declined to comment on the settlement.

— Michael Hewlett

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9/11 Health

Clayton resident Harold Delancey was working for the New York Police Department on September 11, 2001. 

Nearly 25 years later, he is treated for post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues, as well as COPD. In July 2023, Delancey had his prostate removed at WakeMed following a cancer diagnosis. 

As a medically certified member of the federal World Trade Center Health Program, it should be easy for Delancey to receive the free coverage he’s entitled to for his treatment. But he says accessing and paying for health care in North Carolina has been anything but easy. And it could get even harder for him and 9/11 survivors across the country if Congress doesn’t continue to fund the program that provides them free health care, or makes further cuts to the agencies that administer it.

— Jane Porter

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Around the State

Guinea Pigs: Democrats, still reeling from the 2024 election, are testing new strategies to reach voters, including gleaning information from podcasts and comment sections to make their ads more timely. We here in North Carolina, along with Virginia and Pennsylvania, are set to be the test group for at least some of these tactics. Brace yourself for more political ads. Read the full story in The New York Times.

Berger Bulks Up: Senate Leader Phil Berger, who is being primaried by Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, has raised upward of $1.7 million in the first six months of 2025, reports WRAL. Read the full story. 

eCourts Expands: Readers who have been with us since our Docket days will know that the rollout of eCourts, the state’s $100M online courts records system, has been less than smooth sailing. But 14 more counties are slated to launch the system, including Forsyth, where the switch took about 20 weeks and required the help of more than 100 staff members, reports WXII. Read the full story.

— Grace McFadden

Let us know what’s on your radar at politics@theassemblync.com.

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