The State Board of Elections will soon check the citizenship of all registered voters in North Carolina against federal databases to identify and remove any non-U.S. citizens from the voter rolls. The board approved new rules at its meeting today for a process that must be followed before a voter is removed.
Voters’ names, dates of birth, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers will be run through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, which will provide information on any possible noncitizens. The State Board recently entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for this purpose.
“This is another way that we will continue to improve the accuracy of our voter rolls and make sure only eligible voters can cast ballots in this state,” said Sam Hayes, executive director of the State Board of Elections. “As noncitizens are removed from the voter list, necessary precautions will be taken to ensure that no eligible voters are affected.”
When any voters are identified by SAVE as potential noncitizens, elections officials will take several steps designed to ensure that only non-U.S. citizens are removed from the voter rolls. These include:
- Working with SAVE to confirm that no other records available to SAVE show the registrant is a U.S. citizen.
- Checking the voter’s registration records and other state records and databases to determine whether that voter has ever provided proof of U.S. citizenship to a government official.
- If no records available to the State Board show the voter has provided proof of U.S. citizenship, the voter will be notified and given the opportunity to correct or update their citizenship information before they can be removed from the voter rolls. The State Board administrative rules adopted today establish procedures to guide county boards of elections in carrying out this process. The proposed rules require that the voter receive notice and an opportunity to be heard, including the opportunity to obtain and provide documentation of their citizenship, before being removed. The rules approved by the State Board on Thursday, now go to the Rules Review Commission for review and final approval before they become effective.
Why is this effort important?
Under Article VI, Section 1 of the North Carolina Constitution, only U.S. citizens may vote in N.C. elections. Registering and voting as a non-U.S. citizen are state and federal felony offenses. Ballots cast by ineligible voters cancel out ballots cast by eligible voters.
It is the mission of the State Board of Elections to ensure that the votes of every eligible voter count, and that means not counting ballots cast by ineligible persons. North Carolina often has close contests, where outcomes can be decided by very few votes.
Also, it is possible that noncitizens are on the voter rolls without their knowledge or that they have been misled to believe that registering and voting by noncitizens is lawful.
This list maintenance program will also give election officials and the public important data on noncitizen registering and voting, which can inform future policy decisions and public discussion of the issue.
Election officials do not have evidence to suggest noncitizen registering and voting is a widespread problem. However, there are documented cases of noncitizens making their way onto the voter rolls, often by mistake.
An audit conducted by the State Board after the 2016 general election showed 41 ineligible noncitizens with legal status (green card, etc.) voted in that election, in which nearly 4.8 million voters cast ballots. According to that audit report, interviews and evidence showed that some noncitizens were misinformed about the law by individuals conducting voter registration drives or, in at least one documented case, by a local precinct official. One registrant in her 70s had lived in the United States for more than 50 years and believed that she was a citizen because she had been married to a U.S. citizen. Additionally, a Canadian citizen recently pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of making false claims certifying that he was a U.S. citizen on North Carolina voter registration applications in 2022 and 2024 in order to vote in elections.
More information
For more information, see “Q&A: Use of the Federal SAVE Database for Verification of U.S. Citizenship for Voters” at Maintaining Accurate Voter Rolls, a new webpage with information about voter list maintenance efforts in North Carolina.