70,000 Voters Must Fix Their Registrations or Face Hurdle at the Polls
Thousands of North Carolinians will have to cast a provisional ballot in the 2026 midterms if they don’t update their voter registration information. The message isn’t reaching many of those affected.
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.
