Irwin County board approves challenges to eight voter registrations after audit flags

The Irwin County Board of Elections & Registrations voted 2-0 on Jan. 6 to issue challenge letters for eight registrations flagged during an enhanced audit of the county’s voter rolls.

Supervisor Ethan Compton told the board the county now has access to additional datasets, including the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE database and expanded USPS address information, which staff cross-reference against voter rolls to flag potential issues. The audit produced several categories of flags: possible non-citizens, registrations listing business addresses, and addresses flagged as vacant by USPS.

Compton said two individuals remain in pending status as potential non-citizens and will have to present proof of citizenship before becoming active voters; none of those cases required action by the board that night. He also said four registrations appeared to be auto-approved when a DDS-verified identity caused the state system to accept an application even when the listed residential address was on a banned or restricted address list; those four were included in the eight challenges presented for board review.

“It is Supervisor Compton’s opinion that these registrations were not malicious in nature, but simply the desire of entrepreneurs to list their business address on their licenses but moving too quickly on their applications,” the minutes record. Compton also said that more than 86% of matches from the new tools were dismissed upon manual review because the evidence did not meet the threshold for challenge.

Representative Wyatt Thompson moved to approve all eight challenges as a batch; Chairman Waymond Harris seconded and the motion passed 2-0. Compton said example challenge letters and supporting evidence will be corrected for current board membership before issuance.

The board noted that challenge letters provide due process before any removal from the rolls; in prior cases challenge letters prompted voters to contact the office and resolve registration issues. The board voted to proceed with sending the letters and placing challenges to afford each voter an opportunity to respond.