Records show that some North Carolina voters may have cast two ballots in the 2024 election, with multiple individuals having at least two “valid” ballots marked as “accepted” in different counties.
Though President-Elect Donald Trump secured a clear win in the state, data from the Democrat-led North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) suggests numerous cases of potential double voting or possible fraudulent ballots cast in voters’ names.
The Federalist used the NCSBE’s voter search tool to independently confirm that 33 voters had at least two ballots cast in their names, sometimes within the same county and sometimes across different ones. Although it remains unclear whether these voters intentionally cast multiple ballots or if other issues are to blame, an anonymous data analyst cautioned that this number could only hint at a broader problem, given the NCSBE’s reportedly weak voter roll maintenance.
Jim Womack, president of the North Carolina Election Integrity Team (NCEIT), told The Federalist, “Our team and our network of analysts are monitoring the North Carolina ‘Voted’ list for various anomalies, with double voting being one of the main concerns.” Womack added, “We are prepared to challenge all instances of double voting to support election integrity, and when necessary, will submit evidence of potential fraud to law enforcement for prosecution.”
In one case, a voter had three ballots cast in their name: two in-person ballots through early voting in Gaston and Lincoln counties, and one by mail in Gaston County. Although the mail-in ballot was ultimately rejected, both early votes in different counties appear on the NCSBE website with a “valid return” status and “accepted” designation.
Gaston County Elections Director Adam Ragan clarified to The Federalist that, despite the voter having the same state ID number (NCID), counties are unable to verify if someone has already voted in another county.
Ragan explained that this issue is intended to be identified during the post-election canvass period, when counties report their votes to the NCSBE. The NCSBE, which maintains the statewide voter database, is expected to flag any “conflict” votes—instances where the same voter appears to have cast ballots in different areas.
“It’s a voter history audit that we do. After elections, we enter in all the voter history from all the counties, and then it goes to a centralized database at the State Board of Elections, and then it produces any discrepancies, any ‘conflicts,’ as we call them,” Ragan said. “So, Lincoln and Gaston would see that conflict, and whichever county had this second vote, they would be able to reject that ballot.”
While that’s how the system is intended to function, a data analyst with 35 years of experience, who requested anonymity to preserve her ability to audit election data, told The Federalist that she has monitored this issue for years.
Even if the post-election audit does catch double-voting across different counties, it still leaves the question of how so many voters reviewed by The Federalist were able to cast two ballots within the same county—something that should theoretically be flagged immediately.
“The state board is not doing the job that they need to do, and that is having data integrity,” the analyst said. “There is no data integrity there, and every time that they’re queried about it, they say it’s ‘safe and secure,’ and it’s garbage. It’s absolutely garbage. It’s the worst system I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve been working as a data analyst for about 35 years. This is an extraordinarily bad — I mean, it wouldn’t pass any kind of muster, any kind of audit, anywhere.”
The analyst noted that a straightforward programming fix could make it easy to track double votes, but the NCSBE has declined to implement such a solution without explanation. The NCSBE did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.
Many voter records examined by The Federalist raise questions. In some cases, records show a ballot cast in mid-October, followed by what appears to be a new voter registration under the same name in early November, likely through same-day registration at an early voting site. “When they do same-day registration, they don’t check,” Ragan said. “There’s no system in place at polling locations to detect duplicate registrations.”
In some instances, the state has properly maintained the same NCID for these voters, as is required to track registrations. However, other cases show individuals assigned two separate NCIDs, creating duplicate active voter profiles with identical names, addresses, ages, and other identifying information.
The data analyst attributed part of the issue to North Carolina’s reluctance to verify voter identities, explaining, “We cannot be sure that our voter rolls are accurate or consistently maintained. There seems to be no effort to confirm or verify the citizenship status of those on the voter rolls, as these registrations lack proper identification.”
Despite a lawsuit from the RNC claiming that at least 225,000 voters in North Carolina registered without providing a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security Number, as mandated by federal law, the NCSBE has yet to address the issue.
