Sharing the Facts About Using the SAVE Citizenship Check Program for Elections

The Trump administration is pressuring election officials to use a federal program called “SAVE” to root out supposed noncitizens in their voter rolls. If states are forced to comply, this would be a massive shift in the federal government’s limited role in day-to-day election administration, using an ineffective tool to combat an extremely rare issue.

The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program (SAVE) is run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It was originally designed to assist states in verifying the citizenship or immigration status of people applying for benefits like SNAP and Medicaid.

But the Trump administration has expanded its use, giving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to Americans’ private information, including Social Security numbers and dates of birth. Reports show that DOGE has mishandled sensitive data and may have violated federal privacy laws.

State and local election officials are the closest to their voters, and the Constitution and federal law give them the responsibility for checking voters’ eligibility. Efforts to force election officials to use SAVE are worrying, both because they violate this constitutional principle and because state officials and election experts have warned that the SAVE program often relies on incomplete or outdated data. If state and local election officials are forced to use SAVE as the administration intends, it could disenfranchise eligible voters.

Here are some key takeaways about the risks of forcing states to use the SAVE program to check voters’ eligibility:

• Elections are free, fair, and secure.
  • There are strict laws in place that govern who can vote and how. And strict processes to make sure those laws are followed.
  • Only U.S. citizens can vote in state and federal elections.
  • States have a long history of conducting secure and accurate elections that follow state and federal law.
  • Voters can be confident that every eligible vote—and only every eligible vote—is counted, and that our elections in this country are fair and accurate.
• This is a solution in search of a problem.
  • Noncitizens voting is already illegal. And there are very, very few cases of noncitizens even trying to vote. It’s extremely rare.
  • There is no evidence that noncitizens are trying to register or vote in our elections. Any claim otherwise is a baseless allegation meant to diminish trust in the security of our elections.
  • This isn’t a widespread issue impacting our elections, much less one in search of such a costly solution.
• The Trump administration is putting voters’ private data at risk.
  • The administration is introducing unnecessary privacy and security issues affecting voters’ most sensitive data, like driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth.
  • This administration has a poor track record of protecting private data.
  • States are entrusted to protect voters’ private data. It’s not the administration’s job to compile data on hundreds of millions of voters. They could use it in malicious or incompetent ways—and they aren’t willing to explain their goals to state officials or to voters.
  • This data could be shared with a wide array of federal, state, local, and even private agencies and organizations. The administration has not given any reassurances that the data will be properly protected.
• This is a power grab by the federal government to control elections.
  • The Constitution is clear: States run elections in this country.
  • States already have processes in place to make sure that only eligible voters can register and cast a ballot.
  • States use proven tools to check voter eligibility. This is not a proven tool. It’s not trustworthy. And the courts are suggesting it could even be illegal.
  • Election offices are already stretched thin, and any results from SAVE require costly follow up and verification.
  • Forcing election officials to use SAVE would harm, rather than help, our electoral process.
• Improper use of SAVE could prevent eligible voters from participating in elections.
  • Voting is the foundation of our democracy.
  • Only eligible Americans may vote, but no eligible American should be denied the right to vote.
  • DHS has not demonstrated that SAVE’s data is accurate, and improper data could lead to misidentifying eligible voters as noncitizens, after they already went through the process of lawfully registering to vote.
  • This could subject U.S. citizens—your neighbors, family, and friends—to unnecessary burdens, intrusive investigations, and even disenfranchisement.
  • This could hurt older Americans, naturalized citizens, and voters like married women who have changed their names.
  • We cannot afford to play fast and loose with something as fundamental as the right to vote.