Republicans in North Carolina have agreed to withdraw a legal challenge that could have purged tens of thousands from the state’s voter rolls, removing a potential point of contention in a state with a key Senate race this year.
Republicans reached a deal with Democrats and the state’s Board of Elections to end the litigation as state officials carry out a program to collect missing voter information, according to a filing submitted in federal court on Monday.
The agreement had not been approved by a judge as of Tuesday. But it would end a lawsuit, brought by the Republican National Committee in 2024, that challenged the state’s handling of its voter registration list.
The Democratic Party cast the agreement as a safeguard of voter rights, while the Republican Party portrayed it as a victory for election integrity. The deal runs until 2027.
In July, the Board of Elections began a project, called Registration Repair, to contact voters and collect missing information: driver’s license numbers, and Social Security numbers from voters who lacked licenses.
Since the project began, the number of voters whose information was missing dropped from about 103,000 to around 73,000, according to the agreement, which was filed jointly by the Republican Party, the Democratic Party and the Board of Elections.
The Republicans’ complaint said that state officials had for years accepted registration applications with missing information and failed to inform applicants that they needed to provide the information. It requested that voters with missing information be purged from the rolls.
Under the settlement, voters who have not provided missing information and have not certified that they lack either a driver’s license or a Social Security number will still be permitted to cast a provisional ballot in November.
Going forward, the Board of Elections cannot accept voter registration forms missing such information, according to the agreement.
The chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, said in a statement that the settlement was a “win for Americans” that dealt a “blow to the Republicans’ scheme to disenfranchise voters ahead of the midterm elections.”
The chair of Republican National Committee, Joe Gruters, issued a statement hailing the agreement as a “major win for election integrity and a clear rebuke of Democrats who tried to weaken basic safeguards.”
The Board of Elections did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The litigation had threatened to loom over a hotly contested race for the state’s open Senate seat, which is being vacated by Senator Thom Tillis, a moderate Republican who has had an uneasy relationship with President Trump.
Democrats see a ripe pickup opportunity in their push to take control of the Senate: Roy Cooper, a popular former North Carolina governor, is running for the seat, as is Michael Whatley, a former chair of the R.N.C and close Trump ally.
The race is expected to be one of the most costly of the fall midterms.
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