State Board of Elections probes alleged voter-registration worker misconduct in Wake County

The North Carolina State Board of Elections has opened a statewide investigation this month into multiple complaints that people or groups conducting voter-registration drives falsified applications and impersonated election workers in at least seven counties, including Wake. State officials say the allegations include door-to-door workers identifying themselves as county or state election staff and registration forms with wrong birthdates, mismatched voter ID numbers, and other inaccurate or missing required information.

State Board Executive Director Sam Hayes said the board will pursue the allegations aggressively. “When workers involved in voter drives falsify or alter information on registration forms, it can cause problems for innocent voters at the polls. This is unacceptable and hurts voter confidence,” Hayes said, and the board has pledged that “the State Board will investigate all credible allegations of voter registration fraud by individuals or organizations.”

NCSBE spokesman Jason Tyson described the pattern investigators are seeing across multiple counties. Tyson said staff have found “all kinds of names, including names of rappers, Mickey Mouse, nicknames, and aliases, on some voter registration forms,” and that the agency has taken thousands of complaints since 2024. Tyson told reporters the board has logged roughly 300 such reports in the last year across about 30 counties, with “dozens” coming from Brunswick County.

Local election officials have begun referring incidents to the state board. Sara LaVere, director of the Brunswick County Board of Elections, said the county received reports from 2024 through January 2026 of registration applications missing required information or containing inaccurate information; LaVere declined an on-camera interview and said those complaints were directed to the state board for review. Wake County is listed among the seven jurisdictions from which recent complaints were lodged; the full list of counties named by the board includes Brunswick, Buncombe, Chowan, Haywood, Nash, Scotland and Wake.

State and local officials stressed legal consequences for falsifying registrations. Reporting from WLOS notes that falsifying a voter registration form is a felony and specifically identifies the offense as a class 1 felony. Election authorities restated guidance that government election workers do not go door-to-door for any reason and urged voters to verify identification.

With the primary scheduled for March 3 and early voting running through Feb. 28 in North Carolina, the board provided voter resources and a contact path for potential incidents. Voters who encounter someone claiming to be a state or county election worker are advised to ask for identification, take down the person’s information and contact the State Board of Elections. If a registration worker refuses to provide identification, officials ask callers to call the state board office at (919) 814-0700 and ask for the investigations division. The board’s public contact information is P.O. Box 27255, Raleigh, NC 27611-7255; email elections.sboe@ncsbe.gov; fax (919) 715-0135.

Investigators are actively reviewing the complaints and county boards have been asked to forward relevant paperwork. At this stage no arrests or charges tied to these complaints have been reported publicly; Hayes and Tyson indicated the board will continue inquiries through the primary period and beyond to protect voters and preserve confidence in the election process.