With North Carolina’s Tuesday, November 3 general election less than three weeks away, the State Board of Elections is preparing to send letters to nearly 1,400 registered voters whose citizenship status couldn’t be verified through a federal database.
The letters will go to 1,392 people across the state who were identified as potential non-U.S. citizens through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.
However, state elections officials emphasize that the findings don’t necessarily mean those individuals aren’t citizens or are illegally registered to vote.
The 1,392 registrations represent about 0.02 percent of North Carolina’s roughly 7.9 million registered voters.
The State Board announced the mailing on Tuesday, Oct. 13, saying that the letters would give recipients an opportunity to verify their citizenship – or voluntarily cancel their registrations if they aren’t eligible to vote.
“Maintaining accurate voter rolls and ensuring that only U.S. citizens participate in our elections are fundamental duties of the State Board,” said Executive Director Sam Hayes.
“While these registrations represent a small percentage of our voter rolls, one ineligible registrant is still one too many. We have a duty to enforce the law while protecting the rights of every eligible legitimate voter.”
This announcement comes as North Carolina prepares to begin in-person early voting on Thursday, Oct. 15.
In July, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that a review using the SAVE database had identified 1,599 potentially ineligible voters on North Carolina’s registration rolls.
Since then, the State Board has conducted additional reviews, including comparisons with other federal records and information maintained by the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles.
Those reviews reduced the number of potentially ineligible registrations to 1,392.
The SAVE system, administered by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, was originally developed to help government agencies verify immigration and citizenship status.
The Trump administration expanded its use in 2025 to allow state and local election officials to conduct large-scale citizenship checks using information from federal agencies, including Social Security records.
North Carolina election officials say that they will use the expanded system to check the state’s voter registration database at least once a year.
According to the State Board, the information submitted for those checks includes a registrant’s name, date of birth and last four digits of their Social Security number.
However, the federal database isn’t infallible: Citizenship records can be incomplete or outdated, particularly in cases involving immigrants who have become naturalized U.S. citizens.
For that reason, state elections officials say they aren’t automatically removing anyone identified through the database.
Instead, they’re checking additional government records and contacting voters whose citizenship cannot be confirmed.
The sample letter released by the State Board explains that recipients can provide citizenship documentation, including a birth certificate, U.S. passport or naturalization certificate.
The letter also emphasizes that receiving it doesn’t mean that a person’s voter registration has been canceled.
Those who aren’t U.S. citizens are asked to submit a registration cancellation form.
Eligible voters who have been incorrectly identified can provide updated information to resolve the discrepancy.
Any eventual removal proceedings must follow applicable state and federal laws – including requirements for notice and an opportunity to contest a determination of ineligibility.
The use of the SAVE database has also been the subject of federal litigation.
On September 25, the US Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration’s expanded citizenship verification system to continue operating while legal challenges proceed.
That decision temporarily blocked a lower court order that had restricted the program over concerns involving privacy protections and the accuracy of federal records.
The Supreme Court’s ruling didn’t resolve every legal question surrounding the program.
A separate federal court ruling on October 9 found that the US Department of Justice’s efforts to obtain state voter registration records for citizenship checks violated federal law. That decision concerned the Justice Department’s collection and use of voter information, rather than resolving the legality of every state-run citizenship verification effort.
The issue of noncitizens appearing on North Carolina’s voter rolls isn’t entirely theoretical, although state election officials say they have no evidence that it’s widespread.
Following the 2016 general election, a State Board audit identified 41 legally present noncitizens who had voted in that election. Nearly 4.8 million North Carolinians cast ballots that year.
According to the State Board, investigations found that some of the people had misunderstood voting eligibility requirements or had been given incorrect information during voter registration.
In one case, a woman in her 70s who had lived in the United States for more than 50 years mistakenly believed she was a citizen because she was married to a US citizen.
North Carolina law permits only U.S. citizens to register and vote, and violations can carry serious criminal penalties. However, the State Board’s own voter-roll maintenance guidance acknowledges that erroneous registrations don’t necessarily involve deliberate attempts to commit election fraud.
The state also maintains an ongoing program to identify and remove ineligible registrations resulting from deaths, changes of residence, duplicate registrations, felony convictions and other circumstances.
That work involves information from county election boards, the DMV, the Department of Adult Correction and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The State Board says that the expanded federal citizenship checks will become part of that continuing effort.
With early voting about to begin, the timing of the letters is particularly significant.
Federal law places restrictions on systematic voter-roll removals during the 90 days preceding a federal election, although individualized eligibility reviews may continue under applicable law.
The State Board says receiving one of the new letters won’t automatically prevent an otherwise qualified voter from casting a ballot in the upcoming election.
Recipients who believe they’ve been identified incorrectly can contact the State Board at (919) 814-0700 for instructions on submitting citizenship documentation.
Additional information about the process is available on the State Board’s website at www.ncsbe.gov.
