North Carolina identifies roughly 34,000 deceased individuals on voter rolls after federal database check
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina State Board of Elections says it has identified approximately 34,000 deceased individuals on the state’s voter rolls after comparing records with a federal database.
The discovery came after the board submitted 7,397,734 voter registration records to the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database on April 17, 2026, as part of an effort to improve the accuracy of the state’s voter list.
State officials said the primary purpose of the comparison was to verify the citizenship status of registered voters and identify any non-U.S. citizens on the rolls. However, the process also revealed other discrepancies, including potential duplicate registrations, name mismatches and deceased individuals.
“While we expected to find some cases, this is higher than we anticipated,” said Sam Hayes, executive director of the State Board of Elections. “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. 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 will do what’s necessary to meet this responsibility.”
Election officials emphasized that identifying deceased individuals on voter rolls does not necessarily mean fraudulent votes were cast. They said list maintenance is a routine process required under state and federal law to keep voter records up to date.
The board said it will work with county boards of elections to verify the records and remove deceased individuals in accordance with established legal procedures. That process includes cross-checking additional state and federal databases and providing due process before any names are removed.
Officials said the SAVE database comparison uses voters’ names, dates of birth and the last four digits of Social Security numbers, which are sent to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for verification against Social Security Administration records.
In North Carolina, information about deceased voters is typically provided weekly by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services and handled at the county level. Officials said the addition of federal database checks may help identify voters who moved out of state and later died elsewhere, improving the accuracy of the rolls.
The State Board said more information about its voter roll maintenance efforts is available on its website.
