Citizenship questioned in letters to NC voters. What if you get one?

About 1,400 registered North Carolina voters will get a letter in the mail this week asking them to either voluntarily remove themselves from the voter rolls or submit documentary proof of citizenship. 

These voters were flagged by the federal Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements system, also called SAVE, as potential noncitizens. Under state and federal law, noncitizens are not allowed to vote. 

However, voters receiving letters will not be removed from the voter rolls without their permission. Nobody will be prevented from voting in North Carolina in the upcoming election simply because they are on the SAVE list. 

More thorough removal proceedings, which will include an opportunity for voters to defend themselves, may begin after the November election. 

The SAVE system was not originally meant to root out potential noncitizens from the voter rolls; it began as a program to verify citizenship status for other benefit programs. It has since expanded to allow mass checks of voter rolls. 

However, SAVE uses federal government data that is sometimes outdated, incomplete or inaccurate. A voter identified as a potential noncitizen may meet all voter eligibility requirements. 

Recently naturalized citizens may be flagged, as well as voters whose names differ from database to database for benign reasons. 

Originally, the SAVE check uncovered about 1,600 potential noncitizens, but North Carolina election officials reduced that number to 1,392 by checking Division of Motor Vehicle information and voter files for proof of citizenship. 

If every flagged voter were confirmed to be a noncitizen, they would make up 0.018% of all registered voters in North Carolina. 

What should SAVE letter recipients do?

Registered voters should not panic if they receive a SAVE letter. The letter means that the federal government and State Board of Elections has not been able to confirm that they are a US citizen eligible to vote. It does not mean they are automatically ineligible to vote. 

If recipients are noncitizens, they should not vote. Noncitizens are not allowed to vote, even if they are registered to vote. Noncitizens who are improperly on the voter rolls should fill out the registration cancellation form included with their letter and submit that to the State Board of Elections through the mail or in person. 

If recipients are US citizens, they can vote. They do not have to take any extra steps before participating in the 2026 election. 

However, after the election the State Board may begin removal proceedings for the voters left on the list. If eligible voters want to avoid a hearing, they can submit documentary proof of citizenship to election officials now to get off the list. 

Acceptable documentation includes birth certificates, vital records office birth documents, US passports, certificates of citizenship or naturalization issued by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and consular reports of birth abroad issued by the US Department of State. 

The letter says that if voters do not have these documents or cannot make a copy of them, but know they exist, they can provide the information they know to the State Board, which will determine whether that’s enough to confirm their citizenship status. 

If eligible voters experience issues at the polls, they should ask to vote a provisional ballot and contact their county election board office for assistance.

How did we get here on citizenship?

While examples of noncitizen voting are rare, they’ve become a top concern of some political figures, including President Donald Trump. 

In North Carolina, a 2023 law required court clerks to send lists of people excusing themselves from jury duty because they weren’t US citizens to election officials, who could check to see whether these noncitizens appeared on the voter rolls. As of August 2025, three noncitizens were removed from the voter rolls through that process, according to State Board data. 

In a lawsuit over the jury duty law, North Carolina Republican Party attorneys argued that every vote counts in the state’s competitive elections, and that even one instance of noncitizen voting is too many. 

“Voter fraud drives honest citizens out of democratic process and breeds distrust of our government,” the complaint said. “… Voters who fear their legitimate votes will be outweighed by fraudulent ones will feel disenfranchised.” 

The State Board used the SAVE system on a limited basis to execute the jury duty law. But they had to individually check each registered voter’s citizenship status. The system couldn’t handle mass voter roll checks. 

That changed in August 2025, when the USCIS reached out to the State Board, inviting them to run North Carolina’s entire voter roll through the updated SAVE system. Initially, the board declined, saying they didn’t have enough information. 

That November, SBE Executive Director Sam Hayes said he felt comfortable moving forward. The board debated the issue. 

Democratic board member Siobhan Millen expressed concern about the reliability of the SAVE database. She pointed to a 2016 report about the state’s previous use of SAVE, which led to many false positives. 

Republican board member Stacy “Four” Eggers said SAVE was “the only tool available to us to conduct any verification (of citizenship) whatsoever.” He felt that identified voters would get enough notice and opportunity to prove their citizenship before being removed from the rolls. 

In April 2026, the board approved a process for challenging the eligibility of potential noncitizens identified by SAVE. 

These voters would be contacted about the SAVE findings and given an opportunity to provide documentary proof of citizenship. Within 20 business days of the notice, the relevant county election board would conduct a preliminary hearing to determine whether probable cause existed to suspect that the voter was a noncitizen. 

If county board members found probable cause, they would set a date for an official challenge hearing. If they didn’t, they would dismiss the challenge.

During a challenge hearing, the voter could present documents and subpoena witnesses to prove citizenship. If the challenged voter did not appear at the hearing or submit any documentation, they would be removed from the rolls. 

While the board and Rules Review Commission approved the challenge process, more than 10 letters of objection requested legislative review, which was a sufficient number to delay implementation. The proposed challenge process is still not in place, and will not be until after the November election.

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