President Donald Trump spent days promising that his nationally televised speech on election integrity would contain “really, really big news” and one of the biggest announcements of his presidency.

“It doesn’t get bigger because without free and fair elections, you don’t have a country,” Trump said before the speech.

The Thursday night, July 16 speech was intended by Trump to help spur the approval of the Save America voting act, that, among other things, would require proof of citizenship when people registered to vote.

When the speech was over Thursday night, reactions were mixed: While some supporters praised Trump’s focus on election security, many news organizations, election experts and even some Republicans questioned whether the speech lived up to the advance billing.

Some critics even comparted it to Geraldo Rivera’s build up and reveal or what was in Al Capone’s vote.

However, one  piece of the speech did have an immediate impact in North Carolina.  On Friday, the day after the speech, the North Carolina State Board of Elections issued a statement announcing that it would begin reviewing 1,599 voter registrations identified by the Department of Homeland Security as “potential non-U.S. citizens.”

That number came from a nationwide comparison of state voter rolls with the federal SAVE database, which the Trump administration said identified about 278,000 registered voters nationwide who are noncitizens. During his address, Trump cited those figures as evidence of problems with voter rolls and renewed his call for stricter election laws, including proof of citizenship to register to vote.

But the State Board’s response also highlighted an important distinction.

Trump presented the nationwide figures as evidence that noncitizens are registered to vote. The North Carolina board repeatedly described the state’s 1,599 registrations as “potential non-U.S. citizens” and “potentially ineligible registrations.”

The federal database comparison is a screening tool, not a final determination that every person identified is an ineligible voter. Election officials and outside experts have noted that database matches can require additional review for reasons including outdated immigration records, naturalized citizens whose citizenship may not be reflected in every federal database, or other record-matching issues.

In his statement Friday, State Board Executive Director Sam Hayes said the board will first research each case using state and county election records and other available information.

“If that research is inconclusive, then the State Board will contact the registrant regarding their citizenship status,” Hayes said.

He also stressed that each registrant would receive due process before any removal proceeding is initiated.

Hayes wrote that “one ineligible registrant is still one too many,” while also noting that the 1,599 registrations represent an “extremely small percentage” of North Carolina’s approximately 7.8 million registered voters.  It’s about 2 out of every 10,000 registered voters.

The statement doesn’t say that 1,599 illegal voters have been found. Instead, it announces a process to determine whether the federal matches are accurate.

Exactly how DHS arrived at North Carolina’s total hasn’t yet been publicly explained in detail.

The Trump administration has said the figures came from comparisons using the federal SAVE system, but it hasn’t publicly described the precise matching methodology or explained how it accounted for people who later became U.S. citizens after earlier immigration records were created. Election officials in several states have said they are still reviewing the information provided by DHS.

The speech itself generated a far more subdued political reaction than its promotion beforehand suggested it would.  Just moments after the speech, even Fox News was talking about other subjects.  Some Republicans funning for election and reelection in 2026 don’t want the conversation focused on the 2020 election, which Trump claims was crooked, in large part, he claims, because many illegal votes were cast.

Trump had repeatedly teased the July  16 address as containing major revelations. Afterward, however, much of the discussion focused on whether the released documents actually provided new evidence supporting the president’s longstanding claims about election vulnerabilities. Several national news organizations reported that the documents largely revisited previously known issues or allegations that remain disputed, while others noted that the administration’s release included information intended to support its push for stricter election laws.

For now, what’s known is that DHS has identified 1,599 North Carolina voter registrations for further review, and the State Board of Elections has made clear that those registrations will be investigated individually before any conclusions are reached as to whether the people involved are eligible

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