ATLANTA — Election officials in North Carolina voted unanimously on Friday to resist a sweeping federal subpoena for years of state voting records, calling the demand overly broad, a potential intrusion into voters’ privacy and, so far, unexplained.
Meeting by conference call, the State Board of Elections directed North Carolina’s attorney general to ask a federal judge to quash the subpoena, which was received Aug. 31 from the United States attorney for North Carolina’s eastern district.
The Justice Department has not said why the records are needed. But the demand appears related to an investigation of illegal voting by noncitizens that led last month to the indictment of 20 North Carolina residents, all but one of whom are foreign nationals. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security joined the United States attorney’s office in seeking the subpoena.
Similar subpoenas were sent to all 44 counties in the state’s eastern judicial district, demanding voting records, including actual ballots, dating to 2013.
