NC turns over some data to Trump voter fraud panel

The State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement has supplied publicly available voter data to a commission set up by President Donald Trump to investigate voter fraud.

Posted 8:56 p.m. Sep 6, 2017 — Updated 9:46 p.m. Sep 6, 2017

Matthew Burns

RALEIGH, N.C. — The State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement has supplied publicly available voter data to a commission set up by President Donald Trump to investigate voter fraud.

After making still unsubstantiated claims that last year's election featured millions of illegal votes, Trump set up the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The panel's first effort to collect information in June was halted when some states complained that sensitive information had been requested or that the panel was merely seeking to validate the president's voter fraud allegations.

The North Carolina elections board basically gave the commission a link to public voter information found on its website, including voter names, addresses, ages, genders, party affiliations and the list of elections in which each voter has participated. The state board is prohibited from releasing confidential information, including voters’ dates of birth, Social Security numbers and signatures.

State elections director Kim Strach also provided the commission with a copy of the audit conducted after last November's election, in which fewer than 500 disputed ballots were investigated.

"We take very seriously our obligations to secure North Carolina’s election process through uniform practices that prevent unlawful participation and to provide broad and lawful access to the polls," Strach wrote in a letter to commission Vice Chairman Chris Kobach.

Suggest A Correction