NC investigating 1,599 potential noncitizen voter registrations

President Donald Trump addressed the nation on July 16 to highlight concerns about election security, detailing his administration’s initiatives to safeguard the voting process and address concerns about election integrity nationwide. 

The president said administration analysis shows more than a quarter of a million foreigners illegally registered to vote across the US. 

During the address, Trump argued that ensuring only eligible citizens are registered to vote is essential to maintaining public confidence in the nation’s elections. The administration pointed to information generated through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which is used to verify immigration and citizenship status. 

North Carolina was among the states identified. According to information released by the Department of Homeland Security, the SAVE program identified 1,599 potential non-US citizens on North Carolina’s voter rolls. 

North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes said election officials would carefully review the information before taking any action, in a recent press release.

“At the State Board of Elections, we take any evidence of ineligible individuals on our voter rolls very seriously,” Hayes said.

Hayes noted that the 1,599 potential registrations represent “an extremely small percentage” of North Carolina’s approximately 7.8 million registered voters. However, he emphasized that election officials intend to investigate every potential case.

“However, one ineligible registrant is still one too many,” said Hayes. “Therefore, we are developing a process by which State Board and county boards of elections records, as well as other available sources, will be researched for evidence that an identified registrant is eligible to vote.”

Andy Jackson, the director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, said even a relatively small number of ineligible registrations could have significant consequences in close elections.

“If verified, the report of 1,599 non-citizens on North Carolina’s voter rolls is very concerning,” Jackson told Carolina Journal. “While that represents a very small proportion of all registrations in the state, we have had two state Supreme Court elections decided by fewer than a thousand votes in the past decade (Paul Newby in 2020 and Alison Riggs in 2024).”

Jackson emphasized previous examples of individuals who were illegally voting in North Carolina. 

“Past incidents of non-citizen registrations have been found to be mostly the fault of officials who registered them,” said Jackson. “They failed to properly screen for citizenship, even though the citizenship question is on the registration form. Of course, there are also cases of non-citizens maliciously registering, such as Canadian Denis Bouchard, who was convicted earlier this year of illegal registration and voting in several North Carolina elections.” 

According to Hayes, the State Board is developing a process to compare information from state and county election records with other available sources to determine whether each individual identified by the SAVE system is, in fact, ineligible to vote. If election officials cannot conclusively determine a registrant’s eligibility through that review, the individual will be contacted regarding their citizenship status. 

Hayes also stressed that any investigation would follow both state and federal law and that registrants will receive appropriate due process before any removal proceedings begin. 

“I want to assure the public that we are going to follow all applicable state and federal laws as this process unfolds,” Hayes said. “Each registrant will be afforded the appropriate due process before any removal proceeding is initiated.” 

He added that the review process will be conducted transparently, with the State Board providing updates as additional information becomes available. The NCSBE had a meeting on July 20; the topic did not come up.

“NC investigating 1,599 potential noncitizen voter registrations” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.