Evaluating How the USCIS SAVE System Performs in Practice: Evidence from Election Offices

In May 2026, Utah reported the results of a “citizenship audit” of its voter registration rolls that it conducted in April. Of more than 2 million voter records analyzed, just 27 were found to be noncitizens, with another 25 likely noncitizens. The audit’s findings are noteworthy because they confirm what previous studies have consistently shown: that noncitizen voting, which is already illegal in every state for federal elections, is extremely rare. But the findings are notable for another reason too: they were made possible by a resource—the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) service, a program run by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)—that was only recently made available to election officials. After USCIS made a series of changes to SAVE last year, election offices in states across the country began adopting the tool with the purpose of identifying and removing noncitizens from voter registration lists (and preventing noncitizens from registering to vote in the first place). Until a federal court’s ruling in League of Women Voters v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security in June 2026, which temporarily blocked the 2025 SAVE expansions (a September 25, 2026 Supreme Court ruling allowed them to resume), many states were using SAVE results to inform decisions about who can register—and who stays registered—to vote. These decisions were affecting millions of voters and potential voters. Yet little is known about how accurate SAVE is, or the administrative burden that it created for officials. Our research project is an attempt to fill that gap.

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