Trump administration sues North Carolina election board over missing voter ID numbers

The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against North Carolina's election board for violating a federal law regarding voter registrations. As per the accusations, the board has failed to collect mandatory ID numbers from some voters during registration.The US Department of Justice says the State has failed to comply with the 2002 Help America Vote Act which requires voters to provide either a driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number during registration. If a person doesn’t have either, the state must assign them a unique ID number.In late 2023, when Democrats controlled the state election board, they admitted there was some issue regarding missing ID numbers after a voter complained. Even though they updated the registration form, they didn't reach out to previous registered voters to collect the missing information before the general elections of North Carolina in 2024.Lawyers from the justice department's Civil Rights Division want a judge to give the state 30 days to contact voters with records that don't comply with federal law and update their records. The department says voter rolls must be accurate to ensure fair and legal elections.This isn’t the first time the issue has come up. Republicans had earlier filed similar lawsuits, saying around 225,000 voter registrations might be missing ID numbers.The leadership of North Carolina’s election board changed this month after a new law gave Republicans more control. The board now has a Republican majority, and its new executive director, Sam Hayes, says they’re reviewing the lawsuit and are committed to following federal law.Local elections in North Carolina are scheduled for September.