It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Friday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Well, a couple of voters across the state of North Carolina may have received a letter from their county board of elections in error. This is according to a new press release from the North Carolina State Board of Elections. The state board reports that fewer than 1,000 voters statewide received a letter indicating they submitted a voter registration application after the October the 10th deadline for the 2025 municipal elections.
However, the North Carolina State Board says that this was, in fact, a mistake. The officials said in the press release, quote, these voters may not have initiated an update to their existing registration, which could have caused confusion for some letter recipients. Instead, their county board of elections made administrative corrections to their voter registration record after the voter registration deadline as part of the voter roll list maintenance process. Those administrative updates triggered the printing of late registration letters. The state board states that no registrations were canceled or removed from the rolls due to the letter, with the officials saying, quote, this error will in no way affect these voters' eligibility to vote in the 2025 municipal elections.
The county board have county boards, all 100 of them, have been told not to send any late voter registration notices until the state board can make changes to the state election information management system to, quote, prevent these. Letters from being sent to voters with pending administrative corrections. The state board officials ask that if you received a letter by mistake, check your voter registration status by using the state board's voter search tool or contact your local county board of elections for more information. You can either call or walk in to that to your local board of elections office if you did receive that letter. This again is a small group of individuals, about a thousand state boards saying this is an administrative error due to some cleanup that is consistently ongoing in the background.
This, of course, parlays into a project that we have been following throughout the last couple of months. We learned back in July that the State Board of Elections was going to kick off a major initiative to collect missing identification numbers from roughly 103,000 registered voters across the state whose record lacked required ID information. That project is now known as the Registration Repair Project and it simply does this. It aims to bring the state's voter rolls into compliance with both federal and state law, as well as recent court rulings and on an ongoing lawsuit with the United States Department of Justice. This also rounds, and a big part of this is federal law.
Under the federal Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, which took effect in 2004, all voter registrations must include either a driver's license number or the last four digits of a social security number. 'Kay.
However, for nearly a decade in North Carolina, voter registration forms lacked clear instructions. This resulted in tens of thousands of registrations being submitted without the required information. The registration application was corrected, however, in January of 2024. When this was announced back earlier this year, Sam Hayes, the executive director for the State Board of Elections, said this project will not result in the removal of any eligible voter from the voter rolls, as some have inaccurately suggested. Instead, it will result in a cleaner, more complete voter role and full compliance with state and federal laws.
We have gone to great lengths to make this process as straightforward and transparent as possible for affected voters. We fully expect the number of voters on the list to decrease quickly. On July the 11th, Washington, D.C. law firm Wilmer Hale sent a letter on behalf of the Democrat National Committee to the State Board of Elections threatening legal action if any voters were removed from the voter rolls. The state board commented on that back in July saying, well, as we've stated, this process is not set to remove anybody.
Hayes said during that Thursday press conference back in July that he was hopeful the move would satisfy the Democrat National Committee and put an end to their threat, saying, No duly registered voter is going to be removed because of this project. We are required by both state and federal law to go back and collect this information. This is due to a faulty form that was promulgated years ago. It's not the fault of the voters, but at the same time, we're required by law to go back and collect this information, which should have been done at that time. And it certainly should have been done in the intervening time.
This is just an effort to comply with the law and settle this litigation. The state board launched a dedicated webpage with a voter search tool, which does allow voters to see if their registration is missing some of that required information. Again, most of that being required by federal law. And voters have three ways to fix that. Use the MyNCDMV web portal.
That's the same system that you likely use to pay your car registration every year or update your voter registration. You can update that information there. You can visit your county board of election office in person or respond to a letter that you have likely received by this point from the North Carolina state. State Board of Elections. The State Board sent out those letters to individuals who remain on the list of affected voters.
That mailing did include a self-addressed. A prepaid postage return envelope and a simple form for collecting some of that required information.
Now, it is important to note that if you are on that list and you have not dealt with that ahead of the municipal elections, early voting for those elections does wrap up this weekend ahead of election day coming up a Tuesday. Voters who have not updated that registration will, with the required ID information, will be required to vote using a provisional ballot and provide the missing details at the time of voting. And so that is relevant right now whether you are planning on early voting today or tomorrow or voting in person on Election Day on Tuesday. If you have received a correspondence from the State Board of Elections that your voter registration does not have that required information, you will be required to vote provisionally and provide either a full North Carolina driver's license number or the last four of a social security number when going to vote. The state board has added a flag to these voters' records.
So when you check in to vote, poll workers will know that you are required to vote provisionally and supply that necessary information for your ballot to count.
So those are the two, well, for one story that we're tracking this morning about 1,000 letters or so being sent out incorrectly to individuals across the state. And just providing more information and details on this voter registration repair project, which was launched earlier this year by the North Carolina State Board of Elections. We have heard from the board over the last couple of months and the project.
Well, it seems to be working out pretty well. Back in uh mid-August, we learned that more than twenty thousand records had been completed. Again, the final list was a roughly 103,000 individuals. Who did not have some of that proper registration information on record with the state board of elections?
So, about 20,000 had completed either going through the MyDMV portal, responding to a letter from the state board, or going to their local board of election office to repair their registration. That left about 82,000 individuals still waiting to complete and correct some of that information as well. Many individuals will probably go through the process of correcting some of those issues, which, as Sam Hayes noted, was not the fault of the voter. It was the fault of the state board of elections when they did not have clear information on a voter registration form for nearly a decade.
However, I suspect that many individuals will correct this when they show up to vote if they are on this list. That vote will count provisionally once your local county board of elections verifies all of the proper information. The last four of a social security number or a full driver's license number, that provisional ballot will likely be approved, and that voter registration will be updated permanently so that those individuals do not have that same problem. For example, coming up in the primary elections, those will take place in March of next year, or next year's general election coming up in November of 2026. We've got some additional information on this voter registration project and the ongoing that is taking place there.
You can head on over to our website, CarolinaJournal.com, this morning, search for registration repair project or registration repair search tool, and you'll find a link to that right on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, where you can log in, search your name, search the county in which you live, and make sure that your registration is up to date and you will not have any issues when you head out to vote, either coming up here in just the next couple of days or for that. Yeah. It's 5:21. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 11:10-993 WBT.
Well, here's a concerning headline over at CarolinaJournal.com for folks in the Charlotte Metro. Charlotte among the top cities for property crime, according to a new report. And unfortunately, Charlotte has come under an increased scrutiny and spotlight with incidents like the murder of Irina Zaruska, but also is a top city in the U.S. for high property crime, according to a new report by The Hill. The North Carolina State Board, State Bureau of Investigations, that's the NCSBI, categorizes property crimes as robbery, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
According to John Guzet, who is a senior fellow of legal studies for the John Locke Foundation, he told the Carolina Journal: Crime rates in Charlotte and throughout the state vary from year to year, but they very much are more neighborhood to neighborhood. Noting that the residents of high crime, high disorder neighborhoods will always have to worry about crime. And noted that it's an important part to remember that crime in these neighborhoods doesn't just hurt the victims and their families, it harms everyone by reducing the quality of life and driving away businesses and discouraging investment. While property crime remains high, there has been a 5% decrease since 2024, according to a press release from the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department, and robberies have decreased by 22%. Through the third quarter of 2025, overall crime, however, shows a mixed trend compared to the same time periods in 2024, according to a press release.
Robberies have slightly decreased while property crime, while certain levels of property crime have also declined slightly as well. Residential burglaries fell from 1,300 to just 1,200, indicating a modest improvement.
However, commercial burglaries did rise by about 150 from 24 to 25. Larcenies from automobiles remained relatively steady compared to the previous year, and vehicle thefts, however, experienced a significant drop, declining from 5,850 to just over 4,600 in 20 from 4,600 in 2025. According to John Guzay, he says, quote, since the death of Irina Zaruska, the focus has been on keeping repeat offenders and people who are in danger to others due to mental illness off the street. There is indeed a lot of room for improvement with regards to both things.
However, in the long run, the best way to help residents of high crime, high disorder neighborhoods is to deploy more police officers in criminal hotspots. Charlotte is a prosperous city. It can afford to do that. All that needs to happen is the political will. While Irina Zaruska's attacker, the alleged Murderer there and DeCarlos Brown Jr.
is in jail for the brutal stabbing of Zaruska. He was previously arrested multiple times, 14 to be exact, including for an armed robbery conviction. According to a press release from CMPD Sergeant Todd Martin, Who is the Southeast Service Area Crime Reduction Unit within CMPD? Said, quote, We continue to see a troubling pattern. A disproportionate number of violent incidents and property crime are being committed by individuals with extensive criminal histories, many of whom continue to cycle through the judicial system without facing meaningful consequences.
Quote: The cycle of the catch and release does not reduce crime in our community. John Guzay advocates for better community policing to reduce crime. Increased community policing will not only address issues like repeat offenders, which somebody like DeCarlos Brown Jr. would fall into, but it would also help curb property crime. Guzay wrote, quote, intensive community policing, a system emphasizing heavy police presence in high crime areas to maintain order, works, and preventing fare evasion on public transportation is an important part of that.
Patrol officers also play a key role in deterring crime, according to Jackie Byral, who is the deputy chief of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department, saying, quote, Patrol officers are the most visible part of our department. They are in our communities, building relationships, deterring crime, and providing services to our Charlotte residents. Every day, our officers intervene in disputes, stop crimes in progress, and prevent violence without it ever making the news. The progress we're making in reducing violent crime is the result of strong, ongoing teamwork, and we remain committed to a safe Charlotte. Young males are heavily overrepresented as perpetrators.
Of both violent and property crimes, according to data from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations, in 2024, robberies totaled 188 for females and more than 1,000 for males. Burglaries totaled more than 1,000 for females, however, 4,000 for males, and larcenies for men, almost 11,000. This is data from across the state of North Carolina, not just particularly in the Charlotte area. But you can see some of the over-heavy representation for males when it comes to whether we're talking about either violent or property crimes. And the crime issue does continue to be a major one for Charlotte.
As was noted by John Guzet, you know, the crime statistics do tend to vary year to year regardless.
So while some statistics show that there have been slight decreases in certain amount of crimes, like, for example, robberies, there is, of course, the public. Perception issue that a city like Charlotte is dealing with right now, where individuals have voiced some of their concerns over the general unsafeness that they feel within their community. This is something that local leaders are being forced to deal with. Municipal elections, of course, taking place right now. Early voting does continue throughout the weekend for folks in the Charlotte area and other municipalities across the state of North Carolina.
All of that culminates with Election Day on Tuesday. And we know, more particularly in the Charlotte City Council race, we have seen a variety of candidates make crime and public safety a cornerstone of their campaign, kind of backing up some of the concerns that communities are feeling throughout the state of North Carolina, more particularly Charlotte. We will be keeping an eye on those elections as we head into early next week. And of course, we'll provide you the latest details right here. On the Carolina Journal News Hour, and of course, throughout the day, right here on News Talk 1110 and 99.3 WBT.
It's 5:35. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. News Talk 1110-99.3 WBT. Turning our attention to tariffs this morning. As President Donald Trump is now back in the United States after his tour of Asia over the last couple of days, the United States and South Korea have reached a trade deal, which is expected to lower tariffs on Korean auto imports to 15%.
Joseph Harris, who is a fiscal policy analyst at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal, for North Carolina auto producers that rely on South Korean components, this reduction relative to the previous 25 percent tariff rate will help lower production costs by making imported parts less expensive. Likewise, for North Carolina consumers interested in purchasing South Korean-produced vehicles, the lower tariff rate will reduce the purchase price as well, making those cars more affordable. The trade deal includes details on structuring a $350 billion investment in the United States in exchange for reducing import duties on South Korean commodities, particularly in the automotive industry. This is according to Reuters. Harris noted the Trump administration currently imposes a 25% tariff rate on auto and auto part imports, noting, however, imports from the European Union and Japan are subject to a reduced rate of 15%.
Under the administration's recent trade agreement with South Korea, the tariff rate on South Korea auto and auto part imports will be lowered to 15% as well. A key provision of the agreement was to reduce that importance. Rate on Korean automobiles and automobiles parts, which would level the playing field between them and their Japanese competitors. The United States is a significant market for Hyundai Motor and Kia, which are the third largest car manufacturers by sales. According to a recent announcement from Hyundai Motor Group, they said, quote, we appreciate the constructive efforts of the United States administration and the Korean government to resolve business uncertainty and support a positive future trade environment for both countries.
The deal guarantees that companies can expand their commitment in the United States by creating jobs and developing localization. You can read some additional details on this story this morning over at CarolinaJournal.com. Katie Zender's got the headline, experts cut in tariffs on South Korean auto will help North Carolina consumers. Again, you can read those details at CarolinaJournal.com, where it's now 538, News Talk 1110, 993, WBT. We continue our coverage this morning of redistricting lawsuits throughout the state of North Carolina.
Some breaking news this morning on the Carolina Journal News Hour. We'll jump into it with Mitch Kokai of the John Locke Foundation. Mitch, we chatted yesterday. You kind of walked us through all of the different legal challenges, a couple of already existing court cases dealing with some old maps, trying to amend the new maps. What are you following out of the courts this morning?
Well, the latest development is that the three judges who are overseeing two different existing redistricting lawsuits in federal courts in North Carolina have agreed that the plaintiffs in both of those cases can change their lawsuit, amend the lawsuit by adding the new congressional map.
So I think everyone expected that once a new congressional map was approved, that there would be a legal action challenging it. And we saw a legal action within a day of the map being approved. And so now both of these plaintiffs who've been fighting since 2023 against the maps that were drawn that year for both Congress and State House and Senate, they will get to add the new congressional map to their existing case. In a short order explaining this decision, the three judges who are overseeing those cases said, first, that they do have jurisdiction for this. They are able to do it.
And they said for the sake of judicial efficiency and the fact that they've already been dealing with this case for quite a while, including holding a six-day trial back in the summer, because of that, it makes sense to go ahead and just add these new complaints about the new congressional map to the case that already existed. I think another reason why this is probably true is that If you look at the congressional map that we have now, this new one, and compare it to the one that was already being challenged, there's not a huge bit of difference in most of the state. The only place where things change is in District 1 and District 3, where some counties, along with a sliver of Onslow County, are flipped. And otherwise, anything else that was argued about the congressional map. anywhere west of those two districts remains the same.
And the only new allegations involve the changes to the first and third district.
Now I think probably the most interesting development Is not that the judges agreed to the supplemental complaints because no one had really objected to that. The plaintiffs asked for it, legislative defendants did not object, and the state board of elections took no stance one way or the other.
So the fact that the judges signed off on this is probably not all that surprising. What is probably the most interesting development is that the judges in the order accepting the motion for the supplemental complaints said they want to see a schedule. by the end of the business day on Monday about how how this is going to get resolved. We've been waiting since the summer for this panel to issue some sort of ruling after the trial. They haven't done it, but now they say they want to act sort of expeditiously.
And so they have told all the parties in the case. Get together, have your lawyers confer, come up with a schedule. If you can't come up with a schedule that you both agree to, tell us the schedule that you want to see and tell us why. But know that we want to address this expeditiously.
So it seems as if the court. Knows that there's an election coming up, knows that there is a deadline for candidate filing on December 1st. And so they'd like to get some sort of resolution to this as quickly as possible and by telling the parties in the case. get us something in terms of a schedule by the end of the day, Monday, then we might see some sort of quick action to get resolved whether this congressional map is going to be able to move forward for 2026. And that, of course, is substantial.
Not only the fact that this morning is Friday, there's no additional business days outside of Monday before some of these orders are due, Mitch. But that Monday day puts us less than 30 days ahead of that December the 1st deadline. Again, it's not 100% locked in stone, but it is what the State Board of Election has requested to have everything kind of resolved by December the 1st so they can begin the administrative process of rolling out candidate filing primaries in March and a general election in November of next year. Yes, that's exactly right. The State Board of Elections, while taking no sides on anything about the the maps and whether they're constitutional or not, has basically just told the court.
This is what we plan. This is the schedule that we have planned out. A lot of this is spelled out in law. There is some leeway, but once you start to get past December 1st, then some decisions will have to be made about whether periods that are spelled out in law can be shortened or whether that would violate some sort of federal law. And, you know, at some point, if there's a delay in getting some sort of resolution, then you have to start thinking about whether you have to delay an election.
We have a March primary, and there could be a possibility, if this is unresolved, that you could either see all primaries delayed from March to May or Most primaries in March with a congressional primary in May, which would probably cause some problems in terms of getting people to turn out for both primary elections.
So, some of those things start to come into play once you see a longer delay in getting a resolution. That's why the State Board of Elections kind of spelled out a schedule for the courts. I think the courts realize that there needs to be some sort of resolution, and that's one of the reasons why they say, okay. File your complaints. We've already seen the complaints.
They filed them along with the initial request to be able to file them.
So there's not going to have to be much work on that. But now it'll be a matter of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, two sets of plaintiffs, along with the lawyers for the legislative defendants and the state board of elections, getting together and saying, okay, what looks like a reasonable schedule for us to get this done? Because they're going to have to be time for court filings, probably some sort of court hearing, and then some sort of, and then giving the judges time to come up with their decision and to release their decision. Plus, remember that whatever the court decides in this, it could go up to an appeals process. It could go to the Fourth Circuit, and maybe even potentially, depending on what happens to the U.S.
Supreme Court, you would have to factor all of that time into anything that's being discussed about what to do. And as you mentioned, even with that tight timeline saying we're making this decision now and you've got two. business days to get us the schedule that still leaves them less than a month. to get this resolved before the date the candidate filing is supposed to start. Yeah, it's obviously going to be a very quick timeline on all of that.
We will have continued coverage over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Good morning again. It's 5:51.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Stock 1110-993 WBT. Earlier this summer, we brought you a story about the USDA. That's the United States Department of Agriculture and how they were opening up five new agricultural hubs across the United States and moving most of their workforce, if not almost all of it, out of Washington, D.C. and into agricultural communities across the United States. One of those hubs is going to be our state capital in Raleigh, North Carolina.
And a visitor from the USDA was in Raleigh this week to go over some of those details, to walk us through that this morning. Katie Zender, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. Katie, when this was first announced, this is a big deal for the state of North Carolina. We had an assistant secretary in town this week. What were some of the details that we learned?
Yeah, good morning, Nick. Thank you for having me on. Yeah, so Deputy Secretary Stephen Vanden of the USDA was in town this week to speak at the NC Chamber of Commerce's annual Ag Allies Conference. He also met with the mayor of Raleigh, Janet Cowell, and he gave her a personal tour of some of the facilities that is going to house the USDA employees that will be relocating here as that hub is kind of, you know, relocated and moved to Raleigh from the DC metro area. And so he said, the positions that we are intending to move here are positions that are not just functionary positions.
They are positions that will indeed have a say-so in agricultural policy nationwide and will be joining officials who were already at Raleigh before the relocation.
So there are some already some USDA employees here in Raleigh, but from what he said, you know, there are going to be hundreds more moved here and the facilities that the USDA has here in Raleigh has room for hundreds more USDA employees.
So they're going to be moving here, you know, probably within the next couple. The next year, a couple of years, as they move this hub to Raleigh, North Carolina. And so we he got into some of the reasons for, you know, why they chose Raleigh as one of the hubs. And he said what attracted us to Raleigh is the same thing that attracts, you know, everyone else to Raleigh is it's one of the most affordable areas in the country. There's a lower cost of living here.
According to the Forbes cost of living calculator, the cost of living in Raleigh is almost forty-five percent lower than that of Washington, D.C. metro area.
So that's almost, you know, almost a 50% difference.
So that means that someone on a, yeah, exactly.
So it's a huge difference. And that means that someone on a government salary can buy a home with a yard and start a family and live the American dream, said Vandon. In order for a government employee on a government salary to be able to do that in the DC metro area, they're going to have at least an hour commute into the city, if not more. And that's if they want, you know, the house, the yard, the family, all those things. In Raleigh, they can have all those same things with an average commute of 20 to 25 minutes.
So again, almost half commute time and half the cost of living.
So that's really one of the things that. Is attracting them to the Raleigh area from DC. He said when he was down here, you know. Meeting with USDA officials, most of the USDA officials that are already here are transplants for that very reason. But he did say.
That he met one DC native who left DC and moved to Raleigh by choice, and they have never looked back.
So, you know, same thing that's attracting, you know. A lot of Americans to North Carolina and to Raleigh. North Carolina has been one of the most moved to states for Americans in the last couple of years. And it's because of the affordable cost of living and the policies that we have here.
So that's really one of the things that they're looking at, Nick.
Well, and Katie, we talk about this, and obviously you go up to the District of Columbia, you hang out in the Washington, D.C. area. There's not a lot of agriculture immediately in the direct D.C. area. As you get to some of the suburbs and out into portions of Virginia, sure, there's an agricultural community.
But to me, one of the big things that stood out with this announcement earlier this summer is that they are bringing USD employees, USDA employees to states like North Carolina, which for folks that haven't heard our show in the past and haven't heard us talk about it, agriculture is the largest business in the state of North Carolina. It only makes sense to have USDA boots on the ground, or at least more of them on the ground in a state like North Carolina and four others across the country. That's exactly right, Nick, and that's exactly what Deputy Secretary Vanden said. He said, you know, there's not a lot of farming going on in Washington, D.C. But it is our number one industry here.
It contributes more than $111 billion annually to the GDP. It's one-sixth of the state's overall income. It employs at least 16% of the state's population. And our agricultural products are ranked ninth in the nation for their value. Yeah, there's obviously a lot of great facts and figures as it relates to that.
You can read some additional coverage on this visit this week and the original announcement from earlier this summer by visiting our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update. Katie Zender joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Always appreciate Katie joining us here on the show. Don't forget, early voting wraps up this weekend across the state of North Carolina.
Early voting locations open today and tomorrow. They will be closed on Sunday and Monday. And of course, everything culminating with Election Day precinct locations opening on Tuesday. We'll keep you up to date with it over at CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Friday edition.
WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you Monday morning, 5 to 6, right here on News Talk 1110 and 99.3, WBT.
