Texas finds 2,700 unlawful immigrants on voter rolls in state evaluation

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A Texas election evaluation has recognized 1000's of illegal immigrants on the state's voter rolls, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson mentioned Monday.

Nelson said a crosscheck of state voter data discovered that greater than 2,700 attainable unlawful immigrants have been registered on the voter rolls, resulting in an eligibility evaluation throughout the 254 counties.

The info got here from a full comparability of Texas’s 18 million registered voters in opposition to federal citizenship data within the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies’ SAVE database, based on the Secretary of State's workplace.

"Solely eligible United States residents could take part in our elections," Nelson mentioned. " The Trump Administration’s resolution to present states free and direct entry to this knowledge set for the primary time has been a sport changer, and we admire the partnership with the federal authorities to confirm the citizenship of these on our voter rolls and preserve correct voter lists."

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A voter carrying a protecting masks and gloves indicators a doc at a drive-thru mail poll hand supply heart in Austin, Texas. (Sergio Flores/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures)

The investigation confirmed after operating the SAVE crosscheck, that state officers may establish 2,724 potential noncitizens whose voter recordsdata have been despatched to native counties to be additional investigated.

This course of falls below Chapter 16 of the Texas Election Code, which requires counties to confirm every voter's eligibility and take away confirmed noncitizens from the rolls.

Nelson mentioned the evaluation is a part of an effort to take care of an correct voter record and to safeguard election integrity forward of the 2026 election cycle.

"Everybody’s proper to vote is sacred and should be protected," Nelson mentioned. "We encourage counties to conduct rigorous investigations to find out if any voter is ineligible – simply as they do with another knowledge set we offer."

Every flagged voter will obtain a discover from their county registrar giving them 30 days to supply proof of U.S. citizenship. If a voter doesn't reply, their registration might be canceled, although it may be reinstated instantly as soon as proof of citizenship is supplied.

Nelson's assertion mentioned confirmed noncitizens who voted in earlier Texas elections might be referred to the Legal professional Basic's Workplace for additional evaluation and potential prosecution.

The announcement comes amid rising nationwide scrutiny of voter rolls as a number of states – together with Georgia, Arizona, and Florida – have performed related audits of voter eligibility.

Republican Governor Greg Abbott mentioned that since Senate Invoice 1 was signed into legislation, Texas has eliminated a couple of million ineligible or outdated registrations from the state’s voter rolls, calling the hassle important to safeguard Texans' proper to vote.

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Texas has confirmed noncitizens who voted in earlier elections might be referred to the Workplace of the Legal professional Basic for additional evaluation and potential prosecution. (Getty Pictures)

"These reforms have led to the elimination of over a million ineligible individuals from our voter rolls within the final three years, together with noncitizens, deceased voters, and individuals who moved to a different state," Abbott mentioned. "The Secretary of State and county voter registrars have an ongoing authorized requirement to evaluation the voter rolls, take away ineligible voters, and refer any potential unlawful voting to the Legal professional Basic’s Workplace and native authorities for investigation and prosecution. Unlawful voting in Texas won't ever be tolerated. We are going to proceed to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred proper to vote whereas additionally aggressively defending our elections from unlawful voting."

Abbott has known as the initiative proof that Texas is "main the nation in election integrity."

A breakdown of the data was launched by the Secretary of State’s workplace exhibiting Harris County with the biggest variety of potential noncitizens at 362, adopted by Dallas County (277), Bexar County (201), and El Paso County (165). Smaller counties, together with Andrews, Llano, and Cooke, reported fewer than ten flagged registrations.

In complete, all 254 Texas counties have been included within the SAVE database evaluation. Counties started sending verification notices this week as a part of the 30-day evaluation course of.

In June, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson introduced that she had referred to the Workplace of Legal professional Basic to analyze the names of 33 potential noncitizens who voted within the November 2024 Basic Election.

The assertion launched by Nelson mentioned the referral got here inside weeks of Texas getting access to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s SAVE Database.

"Getting access to this database has been a game-changer. Not solely have we been capable of establish people who shouldn't have voted within the final election, we now have additionally been capable of affirm naturalization of dozens extra," Secretary Nelson mentioned.

The crosscheck was made attainable after the Trump Administration granted states direct and free entry to the federal SAVE database for the primary time.

The device permits election officers to substantiate voter citizenship in opposition to immigration and naturalization data.

The assertion additionally mentioned Texas was among the many first states to affix a pilot program with DHS, USCIS, and the Division of Justice (DOJ) to enhance the database's performance.

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"We're within the early phases of this pilot program, however we already see promising outcomes. This can be essentially the most present and correct knowledge set there may be in relation to citizenship verification," Secretary Nelson mentioned.

County registrars are anticipated to finish their investigations by early December, with official removals and potential referrals to comply with.

The Secretary of State's workplace mentioned the evaluation will proceed with periodic checks in opposition to federal databases to make sure accuracy.

"The SAVE database has confirmed to be a critically essential knowledge set and considered one of many that we'll proceed to make use of in Texas to make sure that solely certified voters forged a poll in our elections," Nelson mentioned.