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North Carolina’s discovery of 34,000 dead people on its voter rolls has sparked renewed calls for voter roll cleanup measures, including increased pressure on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act.
After a state election official said the number of dead people found on North Carolina’s voter rolls was “higher than we anticipated,” Republican Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina called for immediate action to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, commonly known as the SAVE America Act.
“North Carolina confirms 34,000 deceased individuals on our voter rolls,” he wrote in an X post. “This isn’t a mistake—it’s a failure. Election integrity is non-negotiable. Fix it now. Pass the SAVE America Act!”
This discovery has also prompted questions about how many other states have deceased voters still on their rolls. Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Elections Project Action, said he is especially concerned about blue states he believes have been refusing “commonsense” measures to clean up voter rolls.
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The discovery of more than 34,000 dead people on North Carolina’s voter rolls has led to increased pressure on Senate Democrats and Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act. (Kylie Cooper-Pool/Getty Images; Philipp von Ditfurth/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Earlier this month, the North Carolina State Board of Elections submitted over 7.3 million voter records to the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database as part of an initiative to strengthen the accuracy and integrity of the state’s voter registration list. Following a comprehensive data comparison with the federal database, the elections board identified approximately 34,000 dead people on the state’s voter rolls.
Sam Hayes, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said in a press release after the discovery, “While we expected to find some cases, this is higher than we anticipated.”
“The benefit of entering into cross-state and federal database checks is that it allows us to uncover issues like this. Our goal is to use every available and legal tool at our disposal to achieve the most accurate voter rolls possible,” he continued. “Now, we must roll up our sleeves and begin the hard work to act of verifying that every person registered to vote in North Carolina is eligible. Our team, along with our state and federal [partners] will do what’s necessary to meet this responsibility.”
The state board said it will work with county boards of elections to remove the deceased individuals from the voter rolls in accordance with state and federal law.
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Voting booths are set up during a primary election. (iStock)
While North Carolina is collaborating with the federal government and taking steps to clean up its rolls, Snead expressed concern that Democratic-run states are not doing the same.
“Voter list maintenance takes effort from state officials,” he told Fox News Digital.
He called North Carolina “another example of a state doing the work to root out bad registrations using federal records like the SAVE system.”
“But too many Democrat-controlled states are refusing to do the commonsense work of cleaning up bloated voter rolls or stopping ineligible people from registering in the first place,” he said.
“That’s why it’s so important for Congressional Democrats to end their obstruction of the SAVE America Act, a commonsense, popular piece of legislation that keeps it easy to vote and makes it harder to cheat,” he added.
The SAVE America Act would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. It mandates states to verify voter rolls using citizenship data, remove ineligible registrants and impose civil and criminal penalties on officials who register voters without required proof.
The legislation is currently stuck in limbo in the Senate. Last week, a cohort of Senate Republicans joined Democrats to sink a late-night attempt to attach a version of the voter ID and citizenship verification legislation to the GOP’s bill funding federal immigration enforcement.
Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., all voted against a modified version of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., prepare for a floor battle over Trump-backed voter ID legislation as Senate Republicans and Democrats aim to find a compromise on healthcare after the enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies expire. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu)
President Donald Trump has repeatedly pushed for passage of the SAVE America Act. Last month, he vowed not to sign any other bills until it gets through, and said he wouldn’t approve of a “watered down version.”
Last month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.; and Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., released a statement explaining their opposition to the legislation. The statement posited that the legislation would “disenfranchise up to 21 million citizens who can’t readily access their passports and birth certificates.”
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If enacted, the three asserted the SAVE America Act would be “sowing chaos in state election administration and fueling attacks against hardworking election officials by exposing them to new criminal liability.”
Schumer charged “MAGA Republicans” with “trying to make it harder for Americans to vote.” He asserted that “they know their agenda is failing, so they’re changing the rules.”
Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel and Alex Miller contributed to this report.
