A viral social media claim viewed by over 100,000 users suggests that North Carolina “processed” more than a million duplicate voter registrations during a recent election cycle, drawing a comparison to Governor Josh Stein’s margin of victory. The post, shared by Shiloh Marx—president of the voter-roll maintenance advocacy group Integrity First Alliance—prompted some online commenters to question whether individuals were able to cast multiple ballots.
However, election officials and federal data indicate that the implication is misleading.
### Where the Numbers Come From
The figure of 1,031,350 originates from a U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) report detailing the administration of the 2024 federal general election.
According to EAC spokesperson Kristen Muthig, the statistic accounts for registered voters who submitted new registration applications containing no changes to their personal information. This typically happens when someone forgets they are already registered or submits duplicate forms through different channels, such as online and by mail.
Patrick Gannon, a spokesperson for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, explained that these duplicate submissions frequently occur when individuals update their information at the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) or participate in voter registration drives.
North Carolina is far from unique in this regard. The same EAC report identified high volumes of duplicate registration transactions in other states, including nearly 2.2 million in California, roughly 1.9 million in Michigan, and about 1 million in Virginia.
### Do Duplicate Forms Create Duplicate Voters?
No. Gannon emphasized that while the state’s systems process these incoming forms, duplicate registrations are never actually added to the active voter rolls as separate, active accounts.
When county election boards receive new forms, they are entered into a statewide database that scans for matching names, dates of birth, addresses, and driver’s license or Social Security numbers. If a potential match is found with an existing voter, officials investigate, and any redundant application is discarded or used to update the existing record.
Furthermore, North Carolina actively maintains its voter lists. Between January 2023 and August 2024, county boards removed more than 747,000 ineligible records—such as voters who moved or died—demonstrating that the state routinely cleans its rolls.
### Safeguards Against Double Voting
Even if an ineligible or duplicate record somehow lingered on the rolls, the state employs strict safeguards to prevent anyone from voting twice. Electronic pollbooks are utilized at every early voting site. If an individual attempts to check in after already having cast a ballot, the system blocks them from receiving a regular ballot and issues a provisional ballot instead, which is thoroughly researched by election workers before being counted.
Ultimately, the bipartisan North Carolina State Board of Elections unanimously certified the 2024 election results, and post-election audits have uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
State officials note that pointing to a statistic about duplicate application paperwork and juxtaposing it against a candidate’s margin of victory creates a false narrative. These administrative filings had zero bearing on the outcome of the 2024 election, and the individuals behind the duplicate paperwork were never able to vote multiple times.
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