The Texas Secretary of State鈥檚 Office has flagged more than 2,700 registered voters as potential noncitizens after comparing the state鈥檚 voter registration list with federal immigration data, officials announced Monday.
Secretary of State Jane Nelson said her office recently completed a full review of the state鈥檚 more than 18 million registered voters using information from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services鈥� Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements 鈥� a resource at no cost.
The analysis identified 2,724 Texas voters who may not be U.S. citizens. The Secretary of State鈥檚 Office has turned those names over to county election officials, who are now responsible for verifying each person鈥檚 eligibility to vote under state law.
The in Texas鈥� biggest counties, including:
- Harris County: 362
- Dallas County: 277
- Bexar County: 201
- El鈥疨aso County: 165
Conservative leaders have long asserted that noncitizens have voted illegally in U.S. elections, framing it as a threat to election integrity 鈥� even though of widespread voter fraud. In 2021, state lawmakers passed the , which tightened voter ID rules for mail-in ballots and increased penalties for election offenses, among other changes.
Under the , counties must send written notices to voters flagged as potential noncitizens. Those voters have 30 days to provide proof of citizenship before their registration is canceled. Those removed can be reinstated immediately by presenting proof to county officials or at a polling location.
Confirmed noncitizens who are found to have voted illegally will be referred to the Texas Attorney General鈥檚 Office for investigation.
In June, the Secretary of State鈥檚 Office sent after a smaller review of voter rolls from the November 2024 election found people who may not have been U.S. citizens. About a month later, Attorney General Ken Paxton launched into more than 100 suspected noncitizens who allegedly cast over 200 ballots in the 2020 and 2022 elections.
However, last year found that many U.S. citizens were incorrectly labeled as noncitizens and removed from voter rolls in Texas. This followed that more than 6,500 noncitizens had been removed ahead of the 2024 election. The investigation found the number was vastly overstated: the Secretary of State鈥檚 office had actually identified only 581 individuals as noncitizens.
Concerns over the SAVE database
The SAVE database was to verify the immigration status of individuals applying for or receiving federally funded benefits.
Then in April 2025, federal officials to the database to create a single, nationwide source for verifying non鈥慶itizen status, with the added goal of preventing noncitizens from voting in U.S. elections. The update removed database search fees for states and other government agencies and integrated criminal records and additional data.
But legal and civil-rights groups caution that the SAVE program was created to verify eligibility for government benefits, not as a definitive tool for confirming citizenship in elections. found that SAVE contains incomplete or outdated data and that using it to maintain voter rolls 鈥渞aises significant concerns鈥� about accuracy and privacy. The report notes that errors could result in eligible voters being wrongly removed.
Earlier this month, a coalition of voting rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit . The lawsuit alleged that expanding the SAVE program violates the Constitution, likening it to the citizen dossiers in George Orwell鈥檚 1984.
