Justice Department Announces 18 More Illegal Voting Charges in NC

The U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday that 18 more people living in North Carolina have been charged with voting illegally in the 2024 general election, less than a week before Election Day, NC Newsline reported.

Seventeen are lawful permanent residents and one is in the country without permanent legal status, NC Newsline reported. Prosecutors allege the defendants falsely claimed U.S. citizenship to register and vote. Carolina Journal reported that the cases span the state’s Eastern, Middle and Western federal districts, with nine in the Eastern District, five in the Middle and four in the Western. It reported that State Board of Elections staff ran voter rolls through the federal SAVE citizenship database in April and passed the results to the FBI.

The charges carry a maximum of five years in prison, NC Newsline reported. U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson said every vote matters, noting that in the 2025 municipal elections 14 races were decided by two votes. NC Newsline also noted that studies have found noncitizen voting to be rare.

The Southern Coalition for Social Justice said the timing of the indictments during an ongoing election is concerning and called the charges a minuscule percentage of the more than 7.9 million registered voters in North Carolina, NC Newsline reported. Indictments are allegations, not proof of guilt.