Note: During a blistering response from SBE Chief of Staff Brian LiVecchi, I learned that he—not Adam Steele—gave the approving authority for the rules changes and that I owe Adam Steele an apology. Brian is right and I was wrong for shooting the messenger.
Updated Apr 20, 2026—Last week, the NCSBE Associate General Counsel, Adam Steele, proposed changes that subverted undercut the “Challenge Hearing” rules packet enacted last week by adding one sentence, in the name of giving suspected non-citizen voters an additional benefit of doubt.
At issue is a set of rules addressing how the State and County Boards of Election (SBE & CBE) will handle data finally coming out of the US Government, regarding citizenship.
As a minor piece of background info, the SAVE database was established in 1987, but from its inception, the queries were nearly impossible for states to use in any large-scale manner.
Added to the troubles, the enabling legislation mandated the database, but did not address fees or any sort cost recovery from state using the system.
As a access and Trump 1.0 was too busy fighting off impeachments to get the problem corrected.
Both the Bush and Obama Administrations had devised procedures that made it impossible for election officials to verify the legal status of any voters.
For example, the number of fields required for a query was ridiculous and it presumed the state agency asking the question would have ample background information on the suspected non-US citizen by asking for things like full name, date of birth, and Alien Registration Number (A-number).
I’ll set aside that A-number issue for a second, but if any of the voter’s information did not match, then the query was rejected and the state wasted the $0.50 they paid to submit the information request.
According to a USCIS link that’s now removed—but documented on Wikipedia—requestors had to pay fifty cents for every name search they made into the database. A paper query would cost a cool $2.00.
Let’s see… April 11th’s exact numbers there were 7,741,397 registered voters on the rolls; so by design, the program was cost-prohibitive.
Also, note the process did not allow file uploads and required each suspected noncitizen to be filled in one at a time. Thus, in addition to the fee paid to the Feds, imagine the cost to hire a staff big enough to query 7.7 million registrations.
Now, about that A-number. What are the odds that an illegal immigrant would provide their Alien Registration Number on a voter registration form?
But don’t worry. The Bush/Obama team offered a process for when other identity numbers needed to be used… but until Trump 2.0 corrected the problem, the one number NOT allowed to be used was the person’s alleged Social Security Number.
In addition to the process improvements, on April 1, 2025, the new Trump administration wiped away Bush/Obama database cost blockages for state agencies by cutting the price to F-R-E-E.
These changes empowered election officials from states that care about election integrity, so chalk that one up as a major win for the good guys.
Before the last-minute added language, the process directed county election officials to allow “no less than 10 days” for a voter to respond to a letter, effectually summoning them to submit proof of citizenship. If the voter failed to respond to the notice letter, they would be removed from the rolls.
Remember, the reason the letter would have ever been sent in the first place is that the voter was identified either in a SAVE database, a HAAV database, or any other future database created by the US government.
The only question up for debate involves whether or not it was a case of mistaken identity. For that reason, the voter was granted due process, meaning they have a chance to set the record straight before being removed from the voter rolls.
The troublesome addition to the line addresses what happens if the voter has fled the country or simply throws the letter away and refuses to respond in any way.
By this one sentence, managed to subvert the entire rules package: “If the county board is unable to confirm that the challenged voter received the notice of the challenge hearing, then the county board shall continue the hearing to a date no earlier than 10 business days from the date of the original challenge hearing.”
Board member, Siobhan Millen ask the obvious question about what happens if you cannot confirm that the notice letter—effectively a summons—was ever received by the voter.
Steele’s tap-dance answer fell back on the unconstitutional National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) kabuki theater that forces states to keep voters eligible and on the rolls for a minimum of eight more years after they disappear or stop voting.
Thus, unless somebody—anybody—updates the record or even votes in the name of that noncitizen, there is a chance election officials will do their job and remove said voter after two more federal election cycles, meaning four-plus years.
In the cases of the noncitizens identified through the SAVE Database, as long such voters have plausible deniability of ever receiving the notice to appear, they’re good to go.
As documented before Congress and in good ol’ Charlotte, when any DMV employee or leftist activist lies to an identified suspected noncitizen, telling them something like, “if they didn’t mean for you to vote, they would have pulled your name off the voter rolls!”
The tragically flawed rules package passed the SBE review by a 3-2, party-line vote. Next stop will be the Rules Review Commission, who has the final say in whether or not the rules match the spirit and intent of the NC Legislature. That process should kick into high gear in a month or two, so stay tuned!
~ jd
Next up: The astroturf campaign against the SBE’s list-maintenance rules.
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