N.C. State Board of Elections Authorizes Cooperation To Prevent Noncitizen Voting

Last week, the North Carolina State Board of Elections authorized Executive Director Sam Hayes to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The agreement permits the State Board to compare North Carolina’s voter registration information with the citizenship data in the USCIS’s Systematic Alien Verification of Entitlements or SAVE database. The official memorandum is expected to take several weeks to finalize.  

“This is one of the few tools available to us to check for noncitizens on our voter rolls,” Hayes said. “We are pleased to follow the letter of the law outlined in North Carolina’s Constitution and to make clear that elections are reserved for U.S. citizens.” 

This new agreement will help state election officials verify that individuals on the voter rolls are citizens, as required by law. The SAVE program allows federal, state, local, territorial and tribal agencies, as well as other authorized entities, to verify citizenship or immigration status of individuals for benefits, licenses and other lawful purposes. The two Democrats on the State Board of Elections voted against this program.  

There is a process to appeal decisions if someone believes they are removed in error, but the database has been used for over two decades without any issues being reported.  

“The Texas secretary of state’s office recently entered into a similar agreement,” Hayes said. “After running its entire voter list — more than 18 million records — through the SAVE database, the office identified 2,724 potential noncitizens registered to vote in Texas.” 

The North Carolina Republican Party applaud this move to ensure North Carolina’s voter rolls comply with federal law and the North Carolina Constitution.  

"Safe, secure elections are the cornerstones of our republic. This common sense move will help ensure the integrity of our voter rolls and public confidence in the electoral process. We applaud this decision from the State Board of Elections," said NCGOP Chairman Jason Simmons.