Why It Matters
The North Carolina State Board of Elections has identified nearly 1,600 individuals flagged as potential noncitizens on the state’s voter registration rolls. The discovery follows a September 25 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that permitted states to utilize the federal SAVE database for citizenship verification.
Election officials in North Carolina have opted into the program since last year, but legal constraints and procedural hurdles have delayed any action against the flagged names. Federal law prohibits voter roll purges within 90 days of an election, limiting immediate enforcement capabilities.
What Happened
In July, the state board identified 1,599 potential noncitizen voters using data from the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. As of two weeks prior to recent reporting, the board had not contacted any of the individuals on the list.
Board spokesman Jason Tyson confirmed in an email on September 11 that the agency has not shared the names with county election boards. He emphasized that the agency intends to operate strictly within legal parameters.
“[T]he plan on this has always been to operate within the parameters of the law,” Tyson stated.
Elections Director Sam Hayes welcomed the Supreme Court decision, noting that both the U.S. Constitution and the North Carolina Constitution require citizenship for voter registration. Hayes indicated the board intends to use every legal means available for voter list maintenance but clarified that no voters will be automatically removed solely based on database flags.
By The Numbers
The scale of the flagged population and the procedural delays highlight the complexity of implementing the new verification process:
- 1,599: The number of potential noncitizen voters identified by the North Carolina board in July.
- 90 days: The federal prohibition period during which states cannot purge voter rolls before an election.
- 10: The minimum number of people or organizations that opposed a proposed rule for handling noncitizen flags, triggering legislative review.
- 2,724: The number of individuals flagged in Texas, one of the first states to use the SAVE database for this purpose.
- 578: The number of actual citizens mistakenly flagged in Texas, illustrating known inaccuracies in the database.
Zoom Out
The implementation of SAVE database checks has faced scrutiny regarding accuracy. The system is known to produce false positives, mistakenly identifying U.S. citizens as noncitizens. In Texas, which began using the database earlier than North Carolina, 578 of the 2,724 flagged individuals were confirmed to be citizens.
North Carolina’s internal procedures for handling these flags remain in limbo. In May, the Rules Review Commission unanimously approved a rule outlining how county administrators should process potential noncitizen information. The procedure requires county officials to search records for proof of citizenship if a person is flagged. If no proof is found, individuals are called to preliminary hearings, followed by challenge hearings if questions persist.
However, the rule cannot be enforced because at least 10 people or organizations opposed it. Under state regulations, significant opposition triggers a hold on the rule pending legislative review. This legal bottleneck means county boards currently lack a finalized administrative framework for processing the 1,599 flags identified in July.
What’s Next
The state board must wait until the 90-day federal prohibition period expires before initiating any removal actions. Until then, the flagged names remain on the rolls without contact from election officials.
Legislative review of the contested administrative rule will determine whether the preliminary and challenge hearing procedures can be implemented. If the legislature does not act to override the opposition, county administrators may continue to lack clear guidance on how to verify citizenship for flagged voters.