In a further sign of the sprawling nature of the Justice Department’s effort to collect voting records in North Carolina, prosecutors demanded eight years of information from the state’s Division of Motor Vehicles, according to a copy of the subpoena obtained by The New York Times. The newly disclosed order, along with subpoenas sent to the state’s elections board and counties, appears linked to a federal inquiry into illegal voting by noncitizens. Under federal law, residents seeking to obtain or renew a driver’s license must be offered a chance to register to vote. The demand from the government seeks voter-registration forms submitted to the North Carolina D.M.V. by an array of applicants since 2010. The applicants include those who are foreign-born, said they were not citizens, did not produce a driver’s license as proof of identification, or displayed nonimmigrant visas or other documents “that reflect the applicant was not a United States citizen.”
The order also asks for applications completed in a language other than English, and for applications that had been revoked, denied, deemed fraudulent, incorrectly filed or “found to have other irregularities.”
The Justice Department has not said why the records are needed. But the request appears related to an investigation of illegal voting by noncitizensthat led last month to the indictment of 20 North Carolina residents, all but one of whom are foreign nationals, involving illegal ballots cast in 2016.
The subpoena to the state D.M.V., like those to the state and county elections boards, was issued on Aug. 31 and set a Sept. 25 deadline for the records. A department spokesperson, who previously denied that the agency had been subpoenaed, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Full Article: Justice Dept. Demand for North Carolina Voting Records Extended to D.M.V. – The New York Times.