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NCSBE Proposed Rules on “Presumptive Noncitizens”

The North Carolina State Board of Elections is quietly finalizing rules that could purge thousands of eligible voters from the rolls. The public comment window closes March 16 and what’s at stake demands attention.

The proposed rule relies on a system called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE), a notoriously unreliable federal database, to flag and remove registered voters suspected of not being citizens. Democracy North Carolina has formally opposed these rules and the reason is straightforward: proponents claim this protects election integrity, but the data simply does not support that case.

A nationwide Brennan Center for Justice study of the 2016 election found that across 42 jurisdictions covering 23.5 million votes, election officials referred just 30 suspected incidents of noncitizen voting for investigation. That is 0.0001% of all votes cast. Forty of those 42 jurisdictions reported zero known incidents of noncitizen voting. In the counties with the largest noncitizen populations in the country, nearly all reported zero incidents. In California, Virginia, and New Hampshire — the very states where noncitizen voting was claimed to be rampant — not a single election official could identify one instance of it happening.

Submit a Public Comment

Tell election officials that profiling voter rolls is plain wrong.

WHAT THESE RULES ACTUALLY DO

They rely on a database that misidentifies citizens: North Carolina’s own State Board of Elections has previously stated that the SAVE database is “not a reliable indicator” of citizenship. In Missouri, 35% of voters flagged by this tool turned out to be citizens registered at naturalization ceremonies. These are real people whose voting rights were put at risk by a flawed system.

They could be used to remove voters shortly before an election: The National Voter Registration Act prohibits mass, systematic voter removals within 90 days of a federal election. Voters removed close to an election have almost no time to correct errors before casting a ballot. The proposed rules make no mention of this legal requirement.

They will fall hardest on women, immigrants, and rural voters: More than 2.3 million female citizens in North Carolina do not have a valid birth certificate — and millions more have changed their names — meaning their citizenship documents may not match their current voter registration. People who became citizens through a parent’s naturalization may have no individual paperwork at all. Obtaining official citizenship documents can cost more than $1,300 and take several months to process. The proposed rules do not account for any of this.

The notice process is not adequate: The current rules require only one mailed notice, in English. If that notice is not delivered, the voter has no way of knowing their registration is under challenge. A voter who misses a hearing they never knew about can have their registration canceled based solely on a database flag, with no independent confirmation and no opportunity to respond.

Non-response is treated as proof of ineligibility: If a voter does not appear at their challenge hearing — whether because they never received notice, could not take time off work, or do not speak English — the proposed rules treat that absence as grounds to cancel their registration. That standard will predictably remove eligible citizens from the rolls.

The communities most at risk are often the last to hear about rule changes like this and we must remain vigilant. If you or someone you know receives a notice challenging a voter registration, do not ignore it — contact your county board of elections immediately and reach out to Democracy North Carolina for support at elections@demmocracync.org.

We Sent a Letter to the NCSBE

Our official public comment was sent on March 11, 2026.