The Republican National Committee won a court ruling in North Carolina that forces election officials to use jury‑duty records to identify and remove noncitizens from voter rolls, a decision supporters say tightens election integrity amid other roll problems.
The RNC scored a legal victory in North Carolina that requires state election officials to purge registered voters who are not U.S. citizens, a development reported by Fox News. The move centers on using jury‑duty questionnaires to find people who indicated they lack citizenship and then reconciling that information with voter registration lists. Supporters framed the ruling as a straightforward enforcement step to protect the franchise for citizens and to prevent ineligible voting.
The court’s order directs the North Carolina State Board of Elections to cross‑reference jury duty responses with voter rolls and to forward any findings of noncitizen voting to the relevant district attorney. That process is meant to identify mismatches quickly and to ensure the appropriate legal follow‑up if ballots were cast by people who admitted they were not citizens. Officials will now have to adopt a system to flag those records and act on them, which proponents say closes an obvious gap in roll maintenance.
Democrats fought the change in court, and attorneys associated with Democrat election lawyer Marc Elias argued against the cross‑check before Superior Court Judge Jennifer Bedford. The hearing that produced the order reportedly lasted only 19 minutes, a brevity that underscored how sharply divided parties were over the mechanics of cleaning up lists. The quick ruling surprised some observers and pleased advocates who have pushed for tougher verification steps.
“This agreement is a major win for election integrity in North Carolina,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters told Fox News. “It’s straightforward: if someone admits they’re not a U.S. citizen during jury duty, that information should be used to check the voter rolls and remove anyone who doesn’t belong.” Those are the exact words offered by the RNC chair, and they capture why party officials celebrated the court decision as practical and commonsense.
Concerns about the accuracy of North Carolina’s rolls have been mounting: officials recently discovered more than 34,000 deceased people still listed as eligible to vote. That figure proved embarrassing and helped fuel arguments that a targeted, record‑based purge was long overdue. Voter list maintenance advocates point to the deceased count as evidence that routine checks were either ignored or ineffective for too long.
The ruling lands against a broader political backdrop. The news comes as the election security SAVE Act has been sidelined in the Senate by Republicans who refuse to implement the talking filibuster to pass the wildly popular bill that Trump has considered a top priority. That dynamic has left advocates for national reforms frustrated and focused on state courts and agencies to drive changes they cannot get through Congress.
