A presidential order is helping Texas find and root out voter fraud. The Texas Secretary of State's Office reports 33 potential noncitizen voters in last year's general election, based on a review of a federal citizenship database called SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements). Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that allowed states free access to the SAVE database for the first time. Texas, which has been seeking federal voter registration data for years, was among the first states to utilize SAVE.
The Secretary of State referred the findings to the Attorney General's Office, which investigates and prosecutes voter fraud. The state also used SAVE to verify the citizenship of several voters that had been in question. "This data is helpful in both ways, in flagging people who may not be citizens and are illegally participating in our Texas elections, and then also verifying that other people are in fact citizens and eligible to vote," says Erin Anderson, reporter for Texas Scorecard.
Texas Sec. of State Jane Nelson calls this database a "game-changer" in the state's effort to secure its elections and ensure voter integrity. Former Texas GOP Chair Steve Munisteri agrees. "The issue is not the number (of voters found)," he tells KTRH. "The issue is that people who are not United States citizens should not vote, and even if this results in just one person being found that is not eligible to vote, that person needs to be removed."
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