A Wake County advocacy group filed a legal complaint Friday appealing a decision by the Wake County Board of Elections to dismiss the bulk of its complaint about non-citizen voters.
The Voter Integrity Project wants to remove 528 Wake County residents from the voter registration list because it believes they are not U.S. citizens and not eligible to vote. It identified residents dismissed from jury duty as being a non-citizen and cross-referenced the list with voter registration data.
But a State Board of Elections inquiry using Division of Motor Vehicles data found that 510 voters were indeed U.S. citizens and the Wake board dismissed those complaints. The remaining 18 people whose citizenship were not verified by the state are set to appear before a full hearing Aug. 21 in Raleigh.
"The DMV used a process in order to vouch for the US citizenship of those 510 voters,” said Jay DeLancy, a group spokesman. “Since we were not allowed to ask any competent witnesses about the process at the preliminary hearing, we are hoping to shine light on it with this appeal."
The appeal filed in Wake County Superior Court names Wake elections director Cherie Poucher, state elections director Gary Barlett and state transportation Secretary Gene Conti, among others.
