The federal prosecutor in North Carolina’s Eastern District, who is a Trump appointee, issued sweeping subpoenas in the last week of August for voting records across his district, on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Just two months before the midterm election, county officials were scrambling to figure out how to comply and voter rights advocates raised concerns about an overreach by the federal government and voter privacy.
The subpoenas come a week after the same office announced the arrests of 19 immigrants who'd voted illegally in the 2016 elections. And the far-reaching probe had echos of the Trump administration's now defunct Voter Fraud Commission, which faced widespread bi-partisan backlash when it asked for voter logs across the country.
U.S. Attorney Robert J. Higdon’s has since scaled down his demands and given the boards until January to comply. But on Friday, North Carolina’s State Board of Elections voted unanimously to do whatever necessary to keep from turning over voter records to federal prosecutors and ICE.
Melissa Boughton covers courts and law for NC Policy Watch.
Democratic Congressman David Price represents North Carolina's 4th District.
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