Trump’s Fraud Claims Trigger New Voter Checks—21 Million Americans Could Lose Ballot Access

The debate has intensified after President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed—without evidence—that noncitizens are voting in American elections. His administration expanded a federal immigration database called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) tool, originally designed to check eligibility for public benefits, to screen registered voters for citizenship status [274645]. In late September 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that states could use the SAVE system for this purpose, at least for now [274645].

The consequences have been immediate and widespread. In Utah, thousands of voters flagged by SAVE received notification letters over the summer; more than 4,000 who did not respond were mailed ballots listing only federal races [274645]. South Dakota has nearly 6,000 voters categorized as federal-only, while Arizona has 47,000 [274645]. In North Carolina, vaguely worded letters sent to 1,400 registered voters arrived just two days before early voting began, potentially discouraging them from going to the polls [274645]. Alaska election officials mailed letters to more than 3,000 voters asking them to confirm their citizenship and marked them inactive [274645].

The situation has sparked legal battles. The Justice Department issued grand jury subpoenas to California officials over allegations that the state may have as many as 20,000 non-citizens registered to vote [274408]. However, a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration's attempt to stop California from counting those ballots, ruling 2-1 against the Justice Department's demand that officials separate the thousands of ballots until voters could prove their citizenship [271841]. California Governor Gavin Newsom accused Trump of an "assault on democracy" over the move [271841].

In Arizona's Maricopa County, 207 voters flagged through SAVE as "not eligible" would not receive mail-in ballots and would need provisional ballots. After investigating 60 of them, the county attorney determined at least 52 were citizens [274645].

Naturalized citizens, people who became citizens as children when their parents naturalized, US citizens born abroad, and those without easy access to documents are particularly at risk [274645]. A Brennan Center survey found that more than 9 percent of those polled did not have proof of citizenship readily available—about 21.3 million people nationally if accurate [274645]. A Center for American Progress study found fewer than half of US citizens held a valid passport in 2024 [274645].

There is no evidence of widespread unlawful voting by noncitizens in US elections. CBS News reported that 156 people had been charged with voter fraud offenses since January 2025, out of approximately 227 million registered voters [274645].

"Using the SAVE tool is causing new hurdles for some voters," said Katherine La Puente, US democracy researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Sending vaguely worded letters as early voting began or offering federal-only ballots to some registered voters risks a discriminatory impact on people's right to vote" [274645].

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the US has ratified, requires governments to ensure the right to vote without unreasonable restrictions or discrimination [274645].

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