It's 5.06 and welcome in to a Tuesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Stock 1110-993 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. We are tracking some news this morning out of the North Carolina State Board of Elections as the executive director there is asking the head of the Division of Motor Vehicle DMV for social security numbers of DMV customers who are also registered voters in the state of North Carolina. The request was made about a week ago and it is designed to help state election officials maintain the most accurate voter rolls possible.
Election Director Sam Hayes sent a two-page letter back on September the 29th to DMV Commissioner Paul Tyne. Tyne, as of publication, over at CarolinaJournal.com had not responded to the letter. That was as of Monday afternoon, according to election officials.
So the letter reads in part: The State Board of Elections appreciates the ongoing partnership with the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles to register eligible North Carolinians to vote in person at NCDMV offices and electronically through the online service. This partnership makes registrations to makes registering to vote easy and efficient and helps us ensure that our state's voters have access to the ballot box. Many individuals, when either moving to North Carolina or wanting to vote in North Carolina, do that through the North Carolina Department and Division of Motor Vehicle. Many folks, when they get their license, register to vote, check the box at a DMV office, so it is a large way in which folks register in the state. Hayes continued in the letter to say, I write today to request that NCDMV provide certain data to the State Board to help us maintain the most accurate voter rolls possible for the citizens of this state.
Specifically, I ask that NCDMV engage in a more robust data sharing and matching program with election officials, to include providing full social security numbers for registered voters who are also NCDMV customers. Hayes justified this by saying having these numbers would help maintain accurate voter rolls because election officials would be able to match these numbers against data in other government databases to ensure proper removal of voters due to death and felony convictions. It would also allow us to better identify when an individual has a duplicate registration or more than one registration on the rolls. Finally, having full social security numbers would allow us to identify non-U.S. citizens who may be unlawfully registered to vote.
The justification also, according to Hayes, says, as you know, Russ Ferguson, the U.S. United States Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, shared concern and evidence that NCDMV examiners had mistakenly processed voter registrations for non-citizens as recently as 2024. As the state's chief election official, I share these concerns and ask that your agency provide the data necessary to ensure that our voter rolls are free of non-U.S. citizens and remain as accurate and up to date as possible. Russ Ferguson contacted Paul Tyne as early as July the 10th of this year to share concerns about DMV's voter registration process, noting that the Department of Homeland Security had informed the Western District of North Carolina Attorney's Office of a common theme of the North Carolina DMV seemingly automatically registering illegal aliens to vote.
That's in the letter from the U.S. Attorney to the DMV Commissioner and Paul Tyne. A DMV investigation, quote, did not reveal any systematic issues with our process, Tyne wrote to Ferguson back on August the 28th.
However, the commissioner highlighted two instances where errors occurred due to examiner oversight. Tyne's letter offered specific information about five people that Ferguson cited in an earlier exchange. Ferguson responded on September the 25th that he planned to share the information with the state's other U.S. attorneys since there seems to be a statewide problem simply not just limited to the Western District of North Carolina. Attorney Ferguson wrote, Although your letter claims you didn't your investigation did not reveal any systematic issues, you found issues with all five voters in the limited sample that I identified.
You say two of those issues were due to examiner oversight. But it appears that all five issues could have been avoided by examiner attention.
Furthermore, you propose solution a proposed solution is to alert the State Board of Elections after the fact when by happenstance someone outside of the DMV identifies a problem. While alerting the Board of Elections when the DMV comes to know of an individual that is illegally registered to vote is certainly an improvement. I believe the goal here should be a process change to avoid these illegal acts in the first place. Board of Elections Director Sam Hayes referenced section 303 of the Help America Vote Act. You've heard a lot about this over the last couple of months.
Hava, in the September the 29th letter to Paul Tyne, Hava requires state officials responsible for elections and motor vehicle agencies to enter into a data sharing agreement to the extent required to verify the accuracy of information provided on applications for voter registrations. Elections staff pledge to work with DMV staff to ensure that any transfer of data can be accomplished securely and in full compliance with state and federal law, according to Hayes. He continued in the letter by saying, quote, we commit to maintaining this data securely in our election management system as we have with other sensitive voter data continuously for decades. Hayes added, I believe we all can agree that voting accessibility and voting integrity are equally important as we work towards the most accessible, fair, and accurate elections for North Carolina's 7.6 million registered voters. With full Social Security numbers of registered voters, we can all be sure that non US citizen registered to vote can be identified and removed from the voter list in addition to the additional benefits described above.
State and federal legal action dating back to the summer of 2024 has focused on the accuracy of North Carolina's state board of elections voter rolls. The Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party back just a little over a year ago challenged the former Democrat majority's election board handling of voter registration information. At the time, the GOP complaint challenged some two hundred twenty five thousand voter registrations linked to a form that did not require prospective voters to provide either a a driver's license number or the last four digits of a social security number. Republican groups asked for the affected voters to be dropped from the voting rolls or be required to cast provisional ballots in last November's 2024 general election.
However, due to the close nature of the legal challenge, courts refused to force the election board to take that step so close to the election. Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin later raised the same issue in ballot challenges after the election in November as he trailed Democrat Allison Riggs by just 734 votes statewide. Griffin challenged more than 65,000 votes cast in the contest. More than 60,000 of those ballots involved voters whose registration records appeared to lack required HAVA information. The state Supreme Court ultimately decided that those voters would count in the final election tally, and Griffin conceded the election after a federal judge declined to support a cure process that would have affected ballots Griffin challenged for other reasons.
Then flash forward to May of this year, that's when the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit challenging the election board's voter registration rolls. A federal judge signed off on a settlement of that lawsuit in September, but the Democratic National Committee and a group working with Democrat operative Mark Elias' law firm challenged the settlement. Justice Department lawyers have asked for the dispute to remain on hold until after the federal government shutdown ends. Carolina Journal's Carolina Journal placed a call on Monday afternoon to the State Department of Transportation media line and ended up being transferred to a full voicemail box.
So it did not have the opportunity to chat with anybody at the Department of Transportation or the Division of Motor Vehicle.
However, this is a lengthy request being made by the executive director of the State Board of Election in Sam Hayes. His justification, again, making sure that individuals who are not legal U.S. citizens do not accidentally get registered to vote when filling out an NC DMV application and to work through duplicate or other duplicate registration issues that exist within the State Board of Elections database. You can read some additional details on this story by visiting our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. That story's headline: NC Election Director seeks full social security number data from DMV.
Again, those details. at CarolinaJournal dot com. It's 523. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. News Talk 1110-993WBT.
In response to last week's hearing in Charlotte, that's when the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee held a field hearing on violent crime in communities in Charlotte. Representative Tim Moore, who represents the 14th Congressional District here in North Carolina, introduced the Judicial Accountability for Public Safety Act. This legislation would hold judges civilly liable for releasing violent criminals. This legislation was introduced just seven days after the North Carolina General Assembly passed Arena's Law and sent it to the desk of Governor Josh Stein, who signed it into law back on Friday, October the 3rd. Moore said in a press release, When judges let dangerous repeat offenders walk free despite knowing the risks and someone gets hurt or killed, there has to be accountability.
We've seen too many cases like the killing of Irena Zaruska and Logan Federico that were completely preventable if the murderers had been behind bars at where they belonged. The judicial system in Democrat-run cities that favor criminals over victims are failing innocent Americans. This legislation is the first step to making sure judges do their jobs and put public safety first. During that field hearing that took place in Charlotte, this is what Congressman Moore had to say about the situation. The criticism has not been with the district attorney.
It's been more with the magistrates and the judges, giving just letting these criminals come in and go right out the door. I mean, Officer Campbell, you just testify there are times when you're still doing the paperwork. And the criminal is walking back out on the street. Is that correct? That would be correct.
And just curious, how is that like Is that more often than not or is that just kind of a rare thing? No, it it happens quite frequently. I mean, that should shock everyone. And that should make the point, drive the point home that this is not about money or programs or whatever else and some of these feel-good programs that get kicked around out there to try to divert people from jail. There are people who are dangerous and they need to be incarcerated.
And I'll tell you the other problem that we have, and that is the lawsuit a couple decades ago, I think the ACLU filed at wanting to get folks out, deinstitutionalize folks with serious mental issues.
Well, guess what you have now? You have people out on the streets. Your homeless problem has gone through the roof. You know, you can't go anywhere without seeing homeless encampments, even in my small town of Kings Mountain. where this is happening.
It's happening all over the country. And it's because of these leftist policies of trying to get people deinstitutionalized who have mental issues. And guess some people need to be in the community, but guess what? There are dangerous people who should not have been in the community. And I point to the situation with Irina Zarutska.
Not only should this guy have not been out on bond from previous things, but why didn't somebody involuntarily commit this guy, right? I mean, this guy, you know, whatever you want to say, this guy should not have been on the streets. And these policies have to change. But guess what? It's a question of what's happened when it comes to judicial officials around because you don't hear this as much in some of the other counties.
I mean, you've got a data pool that you can look at. That's Congressman Tim Moore back at the United States House Judiciary Committee field hearing in Charlotte. This legislation lays the groundwork for lawsuits by victims and their families when a bond or sentencing decision is made with, quote, gross negligence or intentional disregard for public safety, according to the press release. It allows injured parties to seek justice through the court system in these limited but serious cases. The bill also preserves protection for judges who act within the scope of ordinary judicial discretion and in good faith.
As we continue with the coverage of that, the law reads: Any person who establishes by clear or convincing evidence that such person was injured by any action taken with intentional disregard for public safety or with gross negligence by a judicial official in a bond determination or sentencing hearing may obtain in a civil action such relief as the court may determine appropriate, which may include punitive damages. This bill, according to Jeanette Doran, who is a constitutional study counselor for the John Locke Foundation, she says, This bill is a small but significant departure from the norms of the judicial community. Although this bill would remove judicial immunity in limited circumstances, it could open the door to broader removal of immunity. Lawmakers and citizens should be careful about starting to punish judges for their decisions, even bad ones. We want judges to rule based on the law, not out of the concern for themselves or fear of getting sued by even disgruntled parties.
Of course, Moore's bill doesn't go that far, but we need to think about how removing some judicial immunity today could end up extending to removal of more or even all immunity in the future.
So split on what folks think about this legislation. We've got a full copy of this bill introduced by Congressman Tim Moore, former Speaker of the North Carolina House, over at our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. That story's headline, Moore Bill targets judges who release dangerous offenders. Again, you can read those details at CarolinaJournal.com. It's 5:36.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. Don't forget, if you miss any of our live show here, weekday mornings 5-6, you can check out the Carolina Journal News Hour podcast in your favorite podcast apps. You can also watch the show live and on demand by visiting our Carolina Journal YouTube channel as well. We cover a lot of business announcements over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, and then, of course, bring them to you here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Many of them large projects, many years away.
But unfortunately, sometimes these projects, while the announcements are great, the projects do not necessarily make their way into full completion. To walk us through some details this morning on a company that has been in the talks for a couple of years here in North Carolina, Teresa Opeka from CarolinaJournal.com joins us to talk about VinFast. They are a Vietnamese electric vehicle maker. Teresa, the announcement back a couple of years ago in North Carolina, what's currently going on on their site, planned development site over in Chatham County? Good morning, Nick.
Thanks for having me.
Well, not a heck of a lot. As I have in the article, you can hear those proverbial crickets chirping right now. There's just been no activity. From a year ago, we had the latest update was that they were gonna push the plant opening to 2028. And this plant was supposed to be up and running now for at least over a good year or so.
Bring all these jobs and the plant is a $4 billion EV manufacturing plant. It was going to be called the crown jewel of Vinfest.
Well, the jewels got a little bit of tarnish on it, and it keeps growing as the years go by.
So, we wanted to do an update because we're seeing a few new articles popping up here and there about the status of the company, where they're going, and it just seems like their main focus has shifted away from the US. They're also looking at Europe as well. And how that bodes for North Carolina. And this would have made the first auto manufacturer in the state if it comes to fruition. I also saw some other reports, other places that Hyundai was also thinking about relocating or locating a plant here.
But in terms of being the first plant, this was supposed to be. You know The big, big news in 2023, we had former Governor Roy Cooper there at the groundbreaking with officials from VenFast. It was just going to be this wonderful thing that happened. But unfortunately, we're not hearing a lot. Hearing the same things from like last year from the company and also from Chatham County.
Where this is being located, Monkure Triangle Innovation Point, which has got some land cleared. And basically, it's the same story. Not much of anything's happening, but There are some things we will go into that are happening, and it's just not for the better. You know, Teresa, obviously, when we talk about business announcements, the business market is always volatile, regardless of whether the economy is good or bad. But predominantly, when we're talking about VinFast, we're talking about electric vehicles, which have seen a huge surge in demand over the last couple of years, then a rapid decline in just the last 12 to 24 months.
That industry and that entire sector is shifting dramatically. Even some domestic car makers, Ford GM and others, announcing they're pulling back on their amount of EV expansion. I would imagine some of that demand issue is causing problems for the Vietnamese automaker. I would imagine so, yes. And we're also looking at the expiration of the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles.
That's going away on October 1st. And also we've got some uncertainty, of course, surrounding tariffs. That's going to compound the company's challenges they have faced so far in the United States.
So you tie that all together, it doesn't paint a really good picture for this company.
Now you mentioned that they have maybe looked at some other emerging markets after making that US announcement, after announcing some of the plans to build that facility here in U. S. It looks like while the company may not be necessarily moving on the plant in Chatham County, they are expanding in the Asia market, correct? That is correct. Yep.
So they started that expansion last year. They're in Indonesia, India, the Philippines. They're breaking ground on a couple different factories over there. And also expanding in their own home country in Vietnam.
So they are still making, it looks to be some progress, but yeah, nothing much here. There are three dealerships I will mention in North Carolina, Apex, High Point, and Charlotte does have some VinFast dealerships and for about seven other states across the country. But that's all the U.S. involvement this company has at this point.
So you highlighted in your article a couple of other articles from places like Bloomberg and the Motley Fool. They are looking at this company's overall financial picture. And Teresa, they're asking, I think, I would argue some pretty important questions. Right, right.
So, you know, basically, insideevs.com, they said VinFast, this is their quote: VinFast certainly tried, but it's become clear that it's not really working according to the plan for the U.S. The cars the brand sells don't seem to be up to snuff for European and American markets. And while losses have continued to mount, you know, basically the owner of VinFast has put up $2 billion of his own money to fund the company. And they lost $3.2 billion last year.
So another report had Bloomberg saying that VinFast is spending $1.57 for every dollar of profit. Again, that's that $3.2 billion loss. And Motley Fool basically is calling the company a money pit, echoing Inside EV's article. They're also questioning whether VinFast would shut its doors and become the next Fisker. That was a a company in where um Two failed American EV companies, like the head of that.
So you combine all of that with all the news and the previous news they had before. They had initial bad reviews of their product. And it just seems like there are some highs with this company, but there are definitely a lot of lows. And again, we're still waiting to hear a lot more on. Are they coming?
Are they still going to be coming to North Carolina? What is the situation with that? It's like we're still in a holding pattern. it's it's a question that actually needs to be asked because there's been so much money promised with this company. We had the J Dig grants, money from Chatham County, which of course they don't get unless they do produce the jobs.
But we do have the state which also ponying up money to clean up the site. They spent another $450 million on infrastructure around the site. Um as we said They're not going to get that back. That money is already spent, it's going to be spent so. It's a costly project to undertake if we're not sure about what's going to happen in the end.
Well, and I'm glad you bring up the JDIG grants. Teresa, over the last couple of months, we've had a couple of different stories looking at J Dig grants. And unfortunately, if you're playing this straight on track record, many of these projects that get announced do not come to their full fruition. They are not getting necessarily that money. But on the other side, you're noting that the state, regardless of whether they're hitting these thresholds for the JDIG, the state is investing hundreds of millions of dollars for roads and infrastructures.
That money is gone, and you could potentially be running infrastructure to an empty facility if nothing ends up being built. That's right. That's right. I mean, we, yeah. We mentioned the J.
Diggs track record. I think we had a story Curse of the J dig a while back, you know, as a headline. And it doesn't seem like anything. They shouldn't say anything. Not much comes to fruition when it comes to these grants.
I mean, North Carolina is ranked number one in business. It's got obviously a lot going for it. You know, going to be zeroing out the corporate tax rate in the next couple of years, you know, lowering the state income tax.
So I get it when you want to give incentives to companies, but it seems like the way they're doing it with these JDIG grants is definitely not working. And you mentioned Rhodes. One of the sad things about this story. And again, human interest stuff always touches me. Um We were talking about how they're going to have to use eminent domain to put new roadways in to connect to this plant and various other things.
There's going to be a lot of homes and businesses demolished and a historic church. Unfortunately, that church, Mary Oaks Baptist Church, met the wrecking ball in June. We do have some pictures and mention this in the article. That church was standing there for a good over 130 years since 1888, and it met with a wrecking ball in June. You know, it just it really saddens me when things like this happen and maybe in the end Again, this is speculation: is this project going to happen?
Did that have to happen with that church, people's homes, people's businesses? I guess the old proverbial time will tell. is what we're going to have to watch out for. Yeah, and again, Chatham County officials and folks from VinFast, the company themselves, both emailing Carolina Journal this week saying that, yes, the project is still on, the plan is still happening, is on schedule to begin construction and have some of that done and operational by 2028. But, Teresa, obviously, looking at the track record here and some of the financial information and your quote, I think many would be probably hard-pressed to believe the folks from VinFast, at least as of right now, but we will continue to wait.
You've got a lot more details, links to the historic church, the Mary Oaks Baptist Church, and some of those other articles you referenced this morning. Where can folks go and read those details? Sure, they can head on over to CarolinaJournal.com. It's a great update this morning. We appreciate the time.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. News Talk 11:10, 99.3 WBT continuing to track a pretty significant back-and-forth exchange between the North Carolina State Board of Elections and DMV. The director of the state board, executive director there, Sam Hayes, has officially asked the Division of Motor Vehicles to share full social security numbers of DMV customers who are also registered to vote. This is being asked to help maintain accurate voter rolls. In a September the 29th letter to DMV Commissioner Paul Tyne, Hayes said that the data would help election officials verify voter eligibility, identify duplicate registrations, remove deceased or felon voters who are convicted felons who lose those rights, and detect non-U.S.
citizens mistakenly registered to vote in North Carolina. The request follows concerns raised by U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson, who sent a letter to the DMV in July of 2024 that federal officials found that the DMV had inadvertently registered non-citizens. Tyne's subsequent request found two examiner errors, but denied any systematic problems.
However, U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson disagreed with that assessment, saying that all five reviewed cases showed preventable issues and called on the process to have some reforms or changes to make sure that that does not continue to happen in the future. Election Director Sam Hayes cited the federal Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, which requires cooperation between election and motor vehicle agencies to verify voter information. He assured that any data that would be shared with the state board of elections would be securely handled under state and federal law, as the state board of elections is already responsible for holding on to either full driver's license numbers or the last four digits of social security numbers in a secured manner within their voter registration database.
So from a pure security perspective, no real concerns there. This issue comes amid ongoing legal and political battles over North Carolina's voter registration system. Back last year, both the state Republican Party and the RNC sued the state of North Carolina over issues with some 225,000 voters. Earlier this year, in May, the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state as well, challenging the accuracy of voter rolls and handling of registrations lacking those IDs required under the early 2000s. Help America Vote Act.
Although courts have largely sided with election officials, disputes continue over ensuring both a voting access and an election integrity is in place ahead of future elections. And with that ongoing legal challenge from the United States Department of Justice, a federal judge has agreed that no further action in that case will take place as the United States Justice Department's voter registration lawsuit against North Carolina continues. That is on a temporary pause while the federal government remains shut down. Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Myers issued a one-page order on Monday where Myers granted Justice Department lawyers a request to stay or a request to hold all proceedings in the case due to that federal shutdown.
Myers wrote, This case was closed on september the eighth, twenty twenty five, with this court's issuance of a consent judgment and order. Since that time, certain third parties have filed motions concerning intervening in the case, but the case has not yet been reopened. Myers added, here plaintiffs seek a stay of any and all briefing deadlines pending the resumption of appropriations following the current government shutdown. Without making any findings regarding the pending motion, the court finds good cause, pursuant to federal rules of civil procedure, to grant the present motion. Any and all deadlines for filing briefings concerning the pending motion in this case are stayed until a further order from this court.
So while the Justice Department and the State Board of Elections look to close out this May lawsuit that was filed by the Justice Department, Democrat groups, including the Democrat National Committee, the DNC, and groups working with Democrat operative Mark Elias did ask for this case to essentially be reopened, even though both parties have agreed that they have dealt with the issues at hand. Both parties have agreed that substantial changes have been made to the voter registration process in North Carolina to guarantee those folks cannot register without either the last four digits of a social security number or a full driver's license. We've got some additional coverage of that and that letter from the election director to DMV over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Tuesday edition. WBT News is next.
Followed by Good Morning, BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5-6, right here on News Talk 11.10 and 99.3, WBT.
