Letters on unvalidated IDs affecting 15,000 Wake voters prompt hundreds of calls

The North Carolina Board of Elections mailed letters to 241,000 registered voters saying those voters had “unvalidated ID numbers on their voter records,” a mailing that included 15,000 Wake County addresses and arrived roughly one week before early voting for the primary. Wake County election officials said the outreach prompted hundreds of phone calls and in-person visits to the Wake County Board of Elections.

The problem surfaced at early voting sites such as the John M. Brown Center in Apex when Holly Springs resident Dorothea Barrow tried to cast an early ballot. Barrow said a poll worker told her, “You have some information missing, and we need your driver's license or Social Security number... so we can type it in.” Barrow said she had not seen the state letter before arriving to vote.

Barrow, who said, “I've been here for the last few years since I've lived in Holly Springs,” described the interaction as unexpected at a site where she has “been coming here year after year with no problems, and all my information is correct in the computer. I said, I don't understand why I need to provide this.” She added, “Even if I had received this letter, I would still have had questions,” and asked, “Why was there mismatched information in the first place? Why weren't there no red flags on the computer?”

Olivia McCall, director of the Wake County Board of Elections, confirmed the county office was “fielding numerous calls and even in-person visits regarding the issue.” McCall described the reaction as confusion: “I think that what we're seeing is just some confusion on why did I receive this letter and why now?” She also told county staff and callers, “It is not a fraudulent because there's some red flags that people look at whenever you're asked to send your driver's license or your Social Security number through the mail.”

The state mailing asked voters to validate certain identification numbers, but the Board of Elections has not released the full text of the letter in this account and has not detailed the response options provided to voters. Officials have not published a tally of how many Wake residents called or visited, nor have county officials provided a count of voters who were required to complete extra verification or cast provisional ballots as a result.

Mailed a week before the start of early voting, the notices intersected with a high-traffic period at sites such as John M. Brown Center in Apex and produced immediate demand for voter assistance at Wake County elections headquarters. As the primary continues, county staff say they are handling the volume of inquiries while awaiting further clarification from the state on the cause of the unvalidated ID flags and the steps voters should take.