Department of Homeland Security Urges States to Use Controversial System Despite History of Returning Faulty Results: Reports
The limitations of the SAVE system and the potential for inaccurate information have raised concerns among voting rights advocates and state election officials. They argue that relying on the system to verify voter eligibility could lead to the disenfranchisement of eligible voters, particularly naturalized citizens who may not have updated their citizenship status with the Social Security Administration. Furthermore, the use of Social Security numbers and SSA data to query the SAVE system has sparked concerns about the potential for errors and misidentification. As the litigation surrounding the expanded SAVE system continues, state election officials are faced with the challenge of navigating the complexities of voter roll maintenance while ensuring the integrity of the electoral process. The conflicting court rulings have created uncertainty, with some states proceeding with caution and others moving forward with the use of the expanded SAVE system. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security remains committed to its efforts to promote the use of the SAVE system, citing the need to ensure the accuracy and security of voter rolls. However, critics argue that the agency's approach is misguided and that more effective solutions are needed to address the complex issues surrounding voter eligibility and election security.
A report from the nonpartisan Fair Elections Center highlights the limitations of the SAVE system, citing a 2006 audit of SSA data that found inaccuracies in citizenship status for 7% of number holders classified as non-citizens. This translates to 3.3 million US citizens being falsely identified as non-citizens. The Brennan Center for Justice notes that the SSA only began collecting citizenship information for all applicants in 1978, resulting in incomplete data for Americans born before that year.
Multiple states that have used the expanded SAVE system to verify voter rolls have found it to be unreliable. Utah, which conducted a comprehensive review in 2025, found that nearly 9,000 people could not be confirmed as citizens through SAVE, but a manual review revealed that over 5,600 of those individuals were actually citizens. Similarly, Texas's former secretary of state raised concerns about the system's accuracy, stating that county investigations into potential non-citizens were ongoing, but emphasizing the need for accurate data.
In a letter to a USCIS official, the former Texas Secretary of State noted that county voter registrars had obtained citizenship documentation from some Texas voters who were identified as potential non-citizens, and that the state was aware of instances where state driver's license records inaccurately reflected a person's citizenship status. A DHS spokesperson acknowledged the limitations of the SAVE system, stating that enhancements had been made to improve accuracy, including a manual review process.
Several states, including California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Nevada, have declined to use the SAVE system to verify their voter rolls. Recently, Mullin sent letters to the top election officials in these states, citing "concerning results" from an analysis of publicly available voter registration data. However, the letters reveal that the numbers are based on a preliminary review, and it is unclear how the administration obtained Social Security numbers from publicly available voter data, which does not contain this information.
Mullin urged the states to "work collaboratively on identity verification" with the federal government and contact DHS by a July 30 deadline, the letters said.
But on Friday, elected officials in California and Nevada were already expressing skepticism at the DHS assertions.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber wrote in a statement that she would assess the claims, though she cautioned that her office had yet to receive Mullin's letter as of Friday morning.
"We welcome legitimate best practices that comply with state and federal law while protecting Californians' personal information," Weber wrote. "However, the information provided during the President's remarks and on the White House website, do not inspire any level of confidence in the methodology used or the conclusions reached."
Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar also pushed back preemptively against the data compiled by DHS, calling it "wildly speculative."
"These numbers are wildly speculative at best and the Department of Homeland Security hasn't shared anything that backs it up," Aguilar wrote. "The Administration has persistently asked us for information regarding our voter data and made demands without answering basic questions."
Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Program, told reporters on Friday that the methodology laid out in the letters sent by Mullin was dubious.
“If you say we found 250,000 voters on the rolls that are non-citizens, and then you say a bunch of them we found using publicly available voter data, we found them by matching their name and address and date of birth and Social Security number against the SAVE program. It's like, well, the publicly available voter data doesn't give you that. So that doesn't make any sense,” he said.
Despite repeated requests, DHS did not confirm whether it used SAVE to conduct its analysis of the four states.
Morales-Doyle described the results as "garbage in, garbage out" if DHS used the SAVE tool to cross-check public voter records.
"I have complete confidence that these numbers are essentially worthless, that they don't mean anything," he said. "It conflicts with all available data and history and just clearly cannot be the case that there are this many noncitizens on the rolls."
Steven Portnoy contributed to this report.
A report from the nonpartisan Fair Elections Center highlights the limitations of the SAVE system, citing a 2006 audit of SSA data that found inaccuracies in citizenship status for 7% of number holders classified as non-citizens. This translates to 3.3 million US citizens being falsely identified as non-citizens. The Brennan Center for Justice notes that the SSA only began collecting citizenship information for all applicants in 1978, resulting in incomplete data for Americans born before that year.
Multiple states that have used the expanded SAVE system to verify voter rolls have found it to be unreliable. Utah, which conducted a comprehensive review in 2025, found that nearly 9,000 people could not be confirmed as citizens through SAVE, but a manual review revealed that over 5,600 of those individuals were actually citizens. Similarly, Texas's former secretary of state raised concerns about the system's accuracy, stating that county investigations into potential non-citizens were ongoing, but emphasizing the need for accurate data.
In a letter to a USCIS official, the former Texas Secretary of State noted that county voter registrars had obtained citizenship documentation from some Texas voters who were identified as potential non-citizens, and that the state was aware of instances where state driver's license records inaccurately reflected a person's citizenship status. A DHS spokesperson acknowledged the limitations of the SAVE system, stating that enhancements had been made to improve accuracy, including a manual review process.
Several states, including California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Nevada, have declined to use the SAVE system to verify their voter rolls. Recently, Mullin sent letters to the top election officials in these states, citing "concerning results" from an analysis of publicly available voter registration data. However, the letters reveal that the numbers are based on a preliminary review, and it is unclear how the administration obtained Social Security numbers from publicly available voter data, which does not contain this information.
Mullin urged the states to "work collaboratively on identity verification" with the federal government and contact DHS by a July 30 deadline, the letters said.
But on Friday, elected officials in California and Nevada were already expressing skepticism at the DHS assertions.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber wrote in a statement that she would assess the claims, though she cautioned that her office had yet to receive Mullin's letter as of Friday morning.
"We welcome legitimate best practices that comply with state and federal law while protecting Californians' personal information," Weber wrote. "However, the information provided during the President's remarks and on the White House website, do not inspire any level of confidence in the methodology used or the conclusions reached."
Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar also pushed back preemptively against the data compiled by DHS, calling it "wildly speculative."
"These numbers are wildly speculative at best and the Department of Homeland Security hasn't shared anything that backs it up," Aguilar wrote. "The Administration has persistently asked us for information regarding our voter data and made demands without answering basic questions."
Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Program, told reporters on Friday that the methodology laid out in the letters sent by Mullin was dubious.
“If you say we found 250,000 voters on the rolls that are non-citizens, and then you say a bunch of them we found using publicly available voter data, we found them by matching their name and address and date of birth and Social Security number against the SAVE program. It's like, well, the publicly available voter data doesn't give you that. So that doesn't make any sense,” he said.
Despite repeated requests, DHS did not confirm whether it used SAVE to conduct its analysis of the four states.
Morales-Doyle described the results as "garbage in, garbage out" if DHS used the SAVE tool to cross-check public voter records.
"I have complete confidence that these numbers are essentially worthless, that they don't mean anything," he said. "It conflicts with all available data and history and just clearly cannot be the case that there are this many noncitizens on the rolls."
Steven Portnoy contributed to this report.
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