The Independent View: ICE and Justice Subpoena Voter Records from NC

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have gotten a Court Order for North Carolina to turn over Eight Years of Voter Registration Records from the State. The North Carolina Board of Elections (BOE) made the Subpoena Public as part of the Materials for a Public Meeting it is holding Friday, where the Request will be considered.

There is little context provided for the Request, which is only listed by the Board as "Consideration of subpoenas issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina." The Subpoena asks the State Records Office to provide "any and all voter registration applications and/or other documents, as identified below, that were submitted to, filed by, received by, or maintained by the North Carolina State Board of Elections from January 1, 2010, through August 30, 2018, within any of the counties in North Carolina."

The List of Documents include:

- Absentee Ballots
- Admission or Denial of Non-Citizen Return Forms
- Early Voting Application Forms
- Provisional Voting Forms
- Voter Cancellation or Revocation Forms
- Voter Registration Forms

A separate Subpoena was issued to Pitt County Requesting Records from August 30, 2013 through August 30, 2018:

- Absentee Ballots
- Executed Official Ballots
- Poll Books
- Voting Authorization Documents
- Voting Records

The State Board Office provided what it says is a Preliminary Estimate of how many Records would be involved. For the County Ballots, the Request could cover more than 2.2 Million Ballots that are traceable to Individual Voters, and more than 3.2 Million that are Untraceable to Individuals. The Total Records Request would cover more than 15 Million Documents, the State said.

A Federal Law Enforcement Official confirmed the Request is related to Indictments announced in late August, when the DOJ and ICE announced they had Charged 19 Foreign Nationals with Voting Illegally.

That Press Release noted, "The indictments follow an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) as part of a newly created Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force (DBFTF) in the Eastern District of North Carolina."

According to the Official, the Request was designed as a Preservation Request. North Carolina Law would dictate that Records are Destroyed after Two years, the Official said, so as the Ongoing Investigation develops, Law Enforcement wants to be sure they can Access relevant Records. The Request is confined to the Eastern District of North Carolina and Two State Agencies, including the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) but only in regards to the Eastern District.

That Scope is not spelled out in the actual Subpoena, which informs Records Officials they can present the Full Records in Hard Copy or in Person at a Federal Grand Jury on September 25th.

UPDATE

North Carolina’s State Board of Elections and 44 Counties will not have to turn over Voting Records until after the November Elections and will be able to Redact any Information on how someone Voted, an Assistant U.S. Attorney said in a Letter to the State Board on Sept. 6th, 2018.

Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article217935215.html#storylink=cpy