Texas Secretary of State refers 117 cases to Attorney General for noncitizen voting review

The Office of the Texas Secretary of State referred 117 cases to the Office of the Attorney General for investigation of potential noncitizen voting. This action is part of a broader update on Texas’ ongoing efforts to review voter citizenship ahead of the Nov. 3 Election.

Secretary of State Robert Howden stated that citizenship is a requirement to vote in Texas under state law and the Constitution. “We have a duty to ensure that only eligible voters participate in our elections,” Howden said.

He added that the office has a responsibility to ensure eligible citizens can exercise their right to vote, noting that the agency is taking great care with the data and conducting additional layers of due diligence.

Last fall, the agency ran the names of the state’s 18 million registered voters through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. This process identified 2,724 potential noncitizens on the voter rolls. Those registrations were referred to county registrars to conduct their own investigations pursuant to state law.

In the weeks following the initial crosscheck, the Office of the Texas Secretary of State partnered with the Department of Public Safety to conduct a manual review of the 2,724 cases. The agency also asked counties to report back the results of their local investigations. This review narrowed the number of potential noncitizens.

The additional review showed that 578 voters demonstrated citizenship. Of those, citizenship was proven for 506 because passport information was added to SAVE after the state’s initial run. The Office of the Texas Secretary of State advised counties to reinstate these registrations if they were removed.

In 2025, Texas became one of the first states to participate in a pilot program with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to perform voter list maintenance using SAVE. The database is described as the nation’s primary source for citizenship data and is widely used by state and local governments, including the Department of Public Safety.