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North Carolina’s heavy use of a federal database to verify Social Security numbers was the subject of a New York Times story that election officials and voter advocates described as “very misleading” and “reprehensible.”

The story, published in newspapers throughout the state and as a brief in Thursday’s News & Record, suggested that state elections officials might be keeping people from registering to vote through the use of the database.

That suggestion is unfounded and contrary to how the database is used, said state elections Director Gary Bartlett.

“We believe we’re in full compliance and they’re providing misinformation,” Bartlett said Thursday. Later in the day he said that the state may look at a procedural change of how and when it checks the database but reiterated that North Carolina acted within what officials believe to be the law.

Since the story was published, state and local officials say they have been swamped by calls and e-mails of people worried that their registration might be thrown out.

North Carolina and other states allow those filling out a new voter application to give either a driver’s license number or a Social Security number to verify their identity.

If a Social Security number is used, it’s checked against a central database run by the federal Social Security Administration.

The story got its start when Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue reviewed usage figures for that database and noticed that several states, including North Carolina, were using the checks in higher-than-expected volumes.

Those higher volumes, according to administration spokesman Mark Lassiter, prompted worries that states might be improperly keeping people from registering to vote.

“It really was an issue of saying, 'Look, we want to be sure that nobody who is registered to vote is prevented from doing so,’” Lassiter said.

That wouldn’t happen, said Bartlett and local election officials.

If a voter uses a Social Security number to register and it comes back from the database as a mismatch, they’re simply asked to provide another form of identification.

“The worst-case scenario is they show an ID at the polls when they show up,” said Charlie Collicutt, deputy elections director in Guilford County.

If someone went to the polls and still couldn’t clear up the problem, elections officials said, they would be allowed to cast a provisional ballot that would be counted once the voter’s identity had been verified.

North Carolina expects to register 850,000 new voters this year by Nov. 1. Bartlett said that North Carolina has higher-than-typical numbers of people who might not be able to use a driver’s license for voter registration, including:

• military personnel and their families
• college and university students who don’t have driver’s licenses or who got driver’s licenses in their home states.

Some people might simply choose to use their Social Security number because they can remember it, Bartlett said, rather than bothering to copy a number from their license.

Also, North Carolina is new to its status as a presidential battleground state, which means many people who have never voted are signing up.

Bob Hall, who leads the voter watchdog group Democracy North Carolina, said there was no reason to think the state was doing anything improper.

“Certainly, there have been serious problems with lost ballots and election manipulation,” he said. “The public should remain vigilant....What we don’t need are inflammatory stories about stolen elections or cheated voters that have no basis in fact.”

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com