SBOE Presentation

2. SBOE Presentation to House Elections Committee

3. No.1 The State Board of Elections, nor the county boards of elections “pad” the voter lists; the lists are not “bloated.” • State Board of Elections administers election law and sets uniform policy based on the law. • County Boards add and remove voters and update voter lists based on eligible documentation available to them. • North Carolina has a comprehensive list maintenance process.

4. “North Carolina is the state with the lowest percentage of voters considered deadwood.” 2008 analysis by Aristotle International Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based company that provides voting data to political consultants and others.

5. Count of Voter Cancellations by Reason It is the State Board’s goal to have as clean of lists as possible, but the reality is that there will be people on the voter rolls that are no longer qualified because on a daily basis, people move, die, go to college, get deployed, or are convicted of a felony.

6. List Maintenance Issues – Inactive Voters • Inactive Voters are qualified registered voters. • These are voters who have had a verification mailing returned undeliverable and did not respond to a confirmation mailing. • They must stay on the list for at least two general election periods. • If they present to vote in the county in which they are deemed inactive, they will only need to update their address in the county. This is based on the National Voter Registration Act, or NVRA.

7. List Maintenance Issues – Why some voters remain on the list and never go inactive • Voter mailings are subject to USPS and human intervention. If a mailing is sent to a voter’s last known residence and the voter has moved away or has died, then the current occupants must place the mail-piece back into the mail stream in order for the verification process to work. If the mailing is never returned as undeliverable, then the voter remains a verified, active voter unless the county board receives actionable information that the voter is no longer qualified to vote in the county. • County boards must receive appropriate notification that a voter is no longer qualified. If the county board does not receive this information, then the only means for removing a voter that has not voted or contacted the board of elections is the no-contact verification mailing process.

8. List Maintenance Issues - Matching Considerations • There are people on the voter rolls that have the same name and date of birth. As of March 15, there were over 8000 in this category. • 2000 audit story

9. List Maintenance Issues • The cooperation of other jurisdictions and agencies is needed to share and match data: • Can only provide death information from certain states that allow their death information to be shared. • SC will not allow the sharing of its death information. • VA just recently started sharing its death information with NC. • For two years, SBOE has been attempting to get information from SAVE to check for legal presence.

10. Data Matching -- Gold Standard • Exact matches must be removed • County boards must research near matches (requires due diligence). • When determination cannot be made, the voter must remain on the rolls and go through proper list maintenance.

11. No. 2 Generally, North Carolina did not have long-lines during 2012 General Election. • Generally, long lines were not a major problem during North Carolina’s 2008 and 2012 general elections. • Certainly, during peak days (first day or last Saturday of One-stop, lunch time, morning of Election Day) isolated one-stop sites or polling sites did have long lines. • Both in 2008 and 2012, more people voted during One-stop than they did on election day. • On Election Day, wait times were generally no longer than an hour. Most election day waits were 20 minutes or less, except in some urban areas and peak periods • Limitations: 1) Budget; 2) Resources; 3) Politics

12. No. 3 Driver license number and social security numbers are validated. • In 2012, a total of 1,569,434 ID validation checks were performed: • 1,043,667 driver license checks • 302,497 SSN checks • Counties processed over 1,568,854 new registrations and voter changes in 2012.

13. No. 4 There were no “zombie” voters in Washington County in the 2010 general election. • Family members notified election day poll worker of deceased relatives that were still registered. • Precincts have forms for this purpose. • Election day poll worker pulled the Authorization to Vote (ATV) labels for the deceased voter and correctly placed the label on the deceased notification form, but did not correctly place these forms into the envelope that had been provided to them by the county board’s director for this purpose. • These labels were not placed on a ATV form – the form that is given to a voter to sign on election day before a ballot is issued to a voter. • During the post-election reconciliation procedures, the county director could not initially reconcile the ATV poll book records against the signed ATV forms; the director could not locate signed ATV forms for a few voters whose labels had been removed from the ATV poll book. • Ultimately, the director located the missing labels on the deceased notification forms that the election day poll worker had incorrectly placed in the wrong location. • No voter history was ever given to these voters. No one was issued a ballot in these voters’ names.

14. No. 5 Sharing Voter Data is a good idea, but . . . • Legislative approval is need to share confidential voter data with appropriate agencies and any interstate consortium. • SBOE has asked for legislative approval. • There will be limitations that are not simply based on confidential data. In order to share data and mine meaningful information, there needs to be some commonality or some unique identifier in the data to perform a credible match. • Removal of voters occurs only after confirmation that they voter is no longer qualified to vote. Without this confirmation, a voter cannot be removed.

15. No. 6 Ballots issued incorrectly • There were approximately 2,200 voters assigned to incorrect NC Senate District in one county. Three senate districts were involved. • Senate race impacted was won by a margin of over 2,200 voters. • The county error was limited to Senate contest only! All other contests on voters ballots were accurate and counted. • Senate District 10 – unopposed • Senate District 11 – Margin of victory 5,858 • Senate District 12 – Margin of victory 2,931

16. No. 7 The SBOE-DMV Analysis was not a “Study.” • In 2011, the State Board of Elections and the DMV were asked to evaluate how many NC voters have a DMV-issued driver license or non-driver ID card. • SBOE and the NCDMV worked together and provided this ID analysis. • In late December 2012, the State Board of Elections was asked for an updated analysis. • Once again, SBOE and NCDMV worked together and provided an updated analysis on January 7, 2013. • The analysis was updated on March 5, 2013

17. SBOE-DMV ID Analysis

18. The SBOE-DMV data analysis • As of March 5, 2013, approximately 7% of the voters that were registered in this state as of January 1, 2013 may not have DMV-issued ID. • These registrants could have some other form of photo ID; but the State Board was only asked to compare the voter rolls to the DMV customer database. • The State Board has authority to gather data from the DMV (GS § 163-82.19(b)). • In order to compare data with any other agency or entity, authority would be needed to request and receive this data. • In addition, when comparing voter registration data, we need to have common fields and unique identifiers to make a comparison match. More is needed than just a comparison on name.

19. Analysis of Voter Registration and DMV Database

20. Potential Voters with no NCDMV ID Tables

21. Voter Registration Processes

22. Voter Registration Law Uniform policy is based on: • Federal • National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) • Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) • Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) • State • North Carolina General Statutes, Chapter 163 • North Carolina Administrative Code

23. Voter Registration Qualifications • Citizenship • Age • Residence • Citizenship rights must be restored

24. State Elections Information Management System(Statewide Voter Registration Database System)

25. Voter Registration Processing

26. The Voter Registration Form • North Carolina accepts the following forms for voter registration: • North Carolina voter registration form • National voter registration form • Federal Postcard Application (military and overseas voters) • Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot

27. State Form

28. National Form

29. Federal PostcardApplication

30. Federal Write-inAbsentee Ballot • Can be used only be military and overseas voters.

31. Only Complete Applications can be Processed Complete Applications Include: Incomplete Applications: • Signature • Citizenship Checkbox • Address • Name • Date of Birth • Placed in a holding queue – the Incomplete Queue • Sent at least 2 notices • Archived after each general election

32. Signature Checkbox Address Name Date of Birth

33. Check for Existing Registration • During data entry of an application, county boards check to see if the applicant is already an existing voter in the county. • The application may be a change of name, address, party affiliation or some other voter information.

34. Complete Applications • After data entry, if an applicant’s registration is complete, the county will proceed with ID Validation.

35. ID Validation

36. ID Validation

37. Acceptable ID for First-time Voters • A current and valid photo identification. • A copy of one of the following documents that shows the name and address of the voter: • a current utility bill, • bank statement, • government check, • paycheck, or • other government document.

38. 2012 ID Validation Checks

39. Statewide Duplicate Check • When an existing record is found, the voter record is updated in the state database and the voter’s status in previous county is changed to REMOVED.

40. Verification Process

41. VOTER REGISTRATION CARD

42. ADDRESS CONFIRMATION CARD

43. Verification Process - Exception • Under GS § 163-82.7(g): • If a voter votes before the completion of the mail verification process, and subsequently the county board is unable to verify the person’s address, then the voter is sent an address confirmation mailing. • Voter must respond to the address confirmation mailing within 30 days. • If the voter does not respond to the confirmation mailing within this time, then the person’s voter status is changed to inactive.

44. List Maintenance – How the voter lists are managed to remove voters who are no longer qualified.

45. SEIMS Data Consistently Shows Voters Are Being Removed

46. List Maintenance DAILY • Updated information from the voter. • Notices of cancellation from the voter or from other counties or states. • Notifications of death from near relatives. • Automatic removals based on registering in new NC county.

47. List Maintenance MONTHLY • Deaths • DHHS (Vital Records) • Felony Convictions • Department of Corrections • Duplicate Checks • SBOE

48. List Maintenance BIANNUAL • National Change of Address (NCOA) • Mailings sent in January and July • Helps to identify moves within the county, the state, and out of state. • Helps to provide notification of voter deaths.

49. NATIONAL CHANGE OF ADDRESS (NCOA)

50. List Maintenance YEARLY • Cross-checks with DMV • Date of Birth Matches • Updates of ID numbers • Legal Presence • SAVE (pending as of March 2013) • Legal Presence