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The North Carolina State Board of Elections removed 747,000 people from their voter rolls within the past 20 months due to their ineligibility to vote.
Election officials announced Thursday that the majority of those cleared had been ineligible to vote since they reportedly moved from their residence without registering to vote at their new address, or simply did not vote in the last two federal elections, giving them an inactive status, The Hill reported.
Deaths, felonies, out-of-state moving and personal requests for removal had been cause for removal, per the outlet.
This clearance occurred just one month after North Carolina Republicans filed a suit to remove anyone deemed ineligible from the state’s voter rolls, according to Just the News.
The lawsuit originated from a Wake County, North Carolina resident, who claimed that voter registration forms within that county did not include requirements for providing driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers, prompting worries over election integrity violations, the outlet found.
“By failing to collect certain statutorily required information prior to registering these applicants to vote,” the GOP lawsuit read, “Defendants placed the integrity of the state’s elections into jeopardy.”
Through clearing voter rolls plagued by those deemed ineligible, this could help relieve many fears over election integrity, as North Carolina is expected to be a close swing-state during the presidential election.
According to the latest polling, the race is a dead heat between President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, although the 45th president currently has the upper edge.
The Real Clear Politics polling average shows President Trump ahead of his opponent by a margin less than one percent (47.8 to 47.2 percent) as of Thursday, though he has narrowly led in six of the last 11 polls taken of the state.
However, polling during this point has underestimated President Trump during the past two elections. On Sept. 16, 2016, Trump led Hillary Clinton in the state by just 0.3 percent (44 to 43.7 percent), while Joe Biden led during this same point in 2020 by 0.6 percent (46.8 to 46.2 percent).
Trump ultimately defied the odds by carrying North Carolina in these two election cycles. The state swung 3.4-points from Sept. 26 to Election Day in 2016, and swung two points into a 1.3-point Trump victory in 2020, meaning that President Trump’s current lead in the state is his largest average yet.