Who are “presumptive noncitizens?”

State elections officials already approved a plan in November to use the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification of Eligibility, or SAVE, system to identify potential noncitizens. 

The board would flag “presumptive noncitizen” voters based on checks of “government records and databases,” like the SAVE system. 

If flagged, the county board of elections has five days to determine if the presumptive noncitizen has already provided proof of citizenship. If not, the county’s elections director would formally challenge the voter’s eligibility and schedule a preliminary hearing, where the voter would have the opportunity to present identification showing they are a lawful citizen. 

If the county board finds probable cause that the challenged voter isn’t a U.S. citizen, then another hearing before the board will be held to determine the voter’s eligibility. If the challenge is upheld, the voter may appeal the ruling to the county’s Superior Court.

Who opposes it and why?

Critics of the proposed rule changes fear eligible voters will be removed from voter rolls during the challenge process. They also cite specific concerns regarding the reliability of the SAVE system, which has traditionally been used to determine eligibility for government benefits, not voting.

According to the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and other advocacy groups, “recent changes to the SAVE system have introduced highly unreliable citizenship information and resulted in other states having eligible voters’ citizenship wrongly questioned.”

North Carolina’s own audit of the 2016 election also questioned the SAVE system’s accuracy in determining the citizenship status of a voter.

According to the audit, “a match with the SAVE database is not a reliable indicator that a person is not a U.S. citizen because the database is not always updated in a timely manner and individuals who derived citizenship from their parents through naturalization or adoption may show up as non-citizens in SAVE.”

Who is in favor of it and why?

At a recent public hearing on the proposed rules changes, Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the conservative John Locke Foundation, spoke in favor of the changes, the News & Observer reported. 

Jackson said the rules would “help remove noncitizens from voter rolls — many of whom are on the rolls through administrative errors, rather than any wrongdoing on their own — while providing procedural protections for citizens.”

Why now?

The proposal comes as the Trump administration is aggressively pushing federal lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote and strict photo identification when voting in federal elections. The bill, which already passed the House, would also force states to run voter rolls through the SAVE system.

Federal law already mandates that only U.S. citizens be allowed to vote, with states in charge of enforcement. Instances of noncitizens voting is also rare. After the 2016 election, a North Carolina State Board of Elections audit identified 41 noncitizens that cast ballots out of nearly 5 million voters.

Voters in North Carolina have been required to show photo identification since 2023.

When would this go into effect?

If adopted, the proposed rules would go into effect May 1, according to the State Board of Elections.

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