RALEIGH, N.C. — Ten people who are not U.S. citizens have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that they falsely claimed citizenship so they could vote in North Carolina elections, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for eastern North Carolina said Thursday.
Every defendant faces a felony count of falsely claiming citizenship to vote, which can bring as much as five years behind bars. All but one also face a count of voting by an alien, which carries as much as a year behind bars. Nine of the 10 are lawful permanent residents, and one is in the country without legal permission; prosecutors said that man had a gun when he was arrested Tuesday and will face more charges.
The indictments allege voting going back as far as the 2000 general election, with nine of the defendants casting ballots as recently as 2024.
Eight defendants made first appearances Thursday morning before a federal magistrate judge in a Raleigh courtroom, another arrived after the hearing, and the 10th appeared at a different federal courthouse. The judge said they would be released under court-set conditions.
U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle called illegal voting an attack on the principle that only Americans decide American elections. With these cases, 12 people have now been charged or convicted of illegal voting in the district in 2026.
Checks by state election staff also found more names on the rolls. Investigators found the defendants by checking state voter rolls against the federal SAVE immigration-status database. Sam Hayes, who leads the state elections board, said the state ran its rolls through the database with Homeland Security in April and has been reviewing the results since. He said about 1,400 other people on the rolls have been identified as noncitizens and notified that they will be removed.
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