Alabama Taps Federal System to Screen Voter Rolls for Noncitizens
MOU with DHS allows Alabama to access federal SAVE system
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s USCIS, granting the State access to the SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) program. Applying SAVE to Alabama’s voter rolls will weed out noncitizens who are registered to vote, commensurate with Allen’s pledge that only U.S. citizens will determine Alabama elections .
“I have been very clear that only United States citizens should be voting in our elections, which is what our Constitution, state and federal law unequivocally demand,” Allen said. “My Office plans to begin using SAVE to verify the citizenship status of registered voters in Alabama and all incoming voter registrations in the immediate future. Ensuring that only eligible United States citizens are registered to vote in Alabama is a vital step to protecting our elections.”
Allen also paid tribute to his team and the Trump-era DHS-USCIS for bringing the agreement to fruition. “I am thankful that President Trump respects the integrity of our elections and shares my zero-tolerance policy for noncitizen voting. Through the use of SAVE, my Office will have greater access to noncitizen identification data than ever before,” he stated.
Under this agreement, Alabama will submit its voter rolls and new registrations to SAVE. USCIS will confirm citizenship status while safeguarding personal data under the Privacy Act of 1974. SAVE has allowed several States to perform similar checks since 2009.
At present, the main users of SAVE are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, Idaho, Ohio, South Carolina, and others, with Colorado and Texas using it in special cases.
It is unclear at this time whether the SAVE system will ultimately be integrated into the Alabama Voter Integrity Database (AVID). Virginia recently signed a MOU with Alabama to participate in AVID, joining Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Texas, Ohio and neighboring States Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi and Georgia. AVID allows States to share voter information securely, ensuring that individuals who are registered in multiple States are identified and removed from the rolls.
ALPolitics.com has reached out to the Secretary of State’s office about the possibility of integrating the SAVE system into AVID, and will be updating this story as more information becomes available.
