CHARLOTTE, NC – Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE) has filed a complaint with the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) outlining how voter registration organizations are violating North Carolina election law when by collecting and retaining personally identifiable information from voter registration applications.
“North Carolina rightly protects its citizens from unscrupulous organizations harvesting personal information under the guise of helping people register to vote,” said Derek Lyons, President of RITE. “But several notorious leftwing operations appear to be doing just that. These organizations are well-known for swamping election administrators with faulty paperwork and phone calls from citizens confused by their meddling. And now, they appear to be retaining North Carolinians’ personal information, in violation of state law. The board of elections must investigate and, if necessary, put a stop to this outrageous betrayal of voter trust. Retaining personally identifiable information demonstrates that groups like this may be more interested in their own agendas than in merely registering voters.”
The complaint names the Voter Participation Center (VPC), the Center for Voter Information (CVI), and Rock the Vote as allegedly violating voter registration laws. VPC and CVI engage in get-out-the-vote activities and have been involved in the unsolicited mailing of voter registration and absentee ballot applications. Rock the Vote focuses on building the political power of young people and hosts an online voter registration portal. In the past, some of these groups appear to have mailed pre-filled voter registration applications to deceased pets, sent out absentee ballot applications with incorrect information, and simply ignored state regulations governing their conduct.
The complaint specifically highlights the violation of North Carolina’s data retention laws, which prohibit the retention of certain personal information after submission of a voter registration form. The complaint emphasizes that these data retention prohibitions are clearly outlined in the state’s statutes and prominently displayed on the NCSBE website.
Read the complaint at RITEUSA.org.
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