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A Texas election review has identified thousands of illegal immigrants on the state’s voter rolls, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said Monday.
Nelson said a crosscheck of state voter records found that more than 2,700 possible illegal immigrants were registered on the voter rolls, leading to an eligibility review across the 254 counties.
The data came from a full comparison of Texas’s 18 million registered voters against federal citizenship records in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ SAVE database, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
“Only eligible United States citizens may participate in our elections,” Nelson said. “The Trump Administration’s decision to give states free and direct access to this data set for the first time has been a game changer, and we appreciate the partnership with the federal government to verify the citizenship of those on our voter rolls and maintain accurate voter lists.”
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A voter wearing a protective mask and gloves signs a document at a drive-thru mail ballot hand delivery center in Austin, Texas. (Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The investigation showed after running the SAVE crosscheck, that state officials could identify 2,724 potential noncitizens whose voter files have been sent to local counties to be further investigated.
This process falls under Chapter 16 of the Texas Election Code, which requires counties to verify each voter’s eligibility and remove confirmed noncitizens from the rolls.
Nelson said the review is part of an effort to maintain an accurate voter list and to safeguard election integrity ahead of the 2026 election cycle.
“Everyone’s right to vote is sacred and must be protected,” Nelson said. “We encourage counties to conduct rigorous investigations to determine if any voter is ineligible – just as they do with any other data set we provide.”
Each flagged voter will receive a notice from their county registrar giving them 30 days to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. If a voter does not respond, their registration will be canceled, though it can be reinstated immediately once proof of citizenship is provided.
Nelson’s statement said confirmed noncitizens who voted in previous Texas elections will be referred to the Attorney General’s Office for further review and potential prosecution.
The announcement comes amid growing national scrutiny of voter rolls as several states – including Georgia, Arizona, and Florida – have conducted similar audits of voter eligibility.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott said that since Senate Bill 1 was signed into law, Texas has removed more than one million ineligible or outdated registrations from the state’s voter rolls, calling the effort essential to safeguard Texans’ right to vote.
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Texas has confirmed noncitizens who voted in previous elections will be referred to the Office of the Attorney General for further review and potential prosecution. (Getty Images)
“These reforms have led to the removal of over one million ineligible people from our voter rolls in the last three years, including noncitizens, deceased voters, and people who moved to another state,” Abbott said. “The Secretary of State and county voter registrars have an ongoing legal requirement to review the voter rolls, remove ineligible voters, and refer any potential illegal voting to the Attorney General’s Office and local authorities for investigation and prosecution. Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated. We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting.”
Abbott has called the initiative proof that Texas is “leading the nation in election integrity.”
A breakdown of the information was released by the Secretary of State’s office showing Harris County with the largest number of potential noncitizens at 362, followed by Dallas County (277), Bexar County (201), and El Paso County (165).
Smaller counties, including Andrews, Llano, and Cooke, reported fewer than ten flagged registrations.
In total, all 254 Texas counties were included in the SAVE database review. Counties began sending verification notices this week as part of the 30-day review process.
In June, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson announced that she had referred to the Office of Attorney General to investigate the names of 33 potential noncitizens who voted in the November 2024 General Election.
The statement released by Nelson said the referral came within weeks of Texas gaining access to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s SAVE Database.
“Gaining access to this database has been a game-changer. Not only have we been able to identify individuals who should not have voted in the last election, we have also been able to confirm naturalization of dozens more,” Secretary Nelson said.
The crosscheck was made possible after the Trump Administration granted states direct and free access to the federal SAVE database for the first time.
The tool allows election officials to confirm voter citizenship against immigration and naturalization records.
The statement also said Texas was among the first states to join a pilot program with DHS, USCIS, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to improve the database’s functionality.
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“We are in the early stages of this pilot program, but we already see promising results. This may be the most current and accurate data set there is when it comes to citizenship verification,” Secretary Nelson said.
County registrars are expected to complete their investigations by early December, with official removals and potential referrals to follow.
The Secretary of State’s office said the review will continue with periodic checks against federal databases to ensure accuracy.
“The SAVE database has proven to be a critically important data set and one of many that we will continue to use in Texas to ensure that only qualified voters cast a ballot in our elections,” Nelson said.
