A Texas man who became a U.S. citizen as a teenager had his voter registration canceled after a federal database search flagged him as a potential noncitizen. The case has intensified concerns about the accuracy and rollout of an overhauled SAVE system that the Trump administration has promoted as a way for states to check voter eligibility, with election officials and advocates warning that it could mistakenly remove eligible voters from the rolls.
Anthony Nel, a 29-year-old resident of the Dallas–Fort Worth area in Texas, has been a regular voter for nearly a decade and cast a ballot during early voting in the state’s Nov. 4 constitutional election, according to reporting by NPR.
Nel was born in South Africa and became a U.S. citizen as a teenager more than 10 years ago through his parents’ naturalization, NPR reports. Yet last month he received a notice from his local election office in Denton County, based on information from the Texas secretary of state, questioning whether he was a U.S. citizen.
“We have received information from the Texas Secretary of State reflecting that you might not be a United States citizen,” the letter said, according to NPR. It instructed him to provide proof of citizenship — such as a copy of a U.S. passport, birth certificate or naturalization certificate — within 30 days or face cancellation of his voter registration. The notice also said his registration could be reinstated later if he provided the required documents.
Nel told NPR he did not submit documents within the 30-day window, in part because he was uncomfortable emailing or mailing a copy of his U.S. passport and preferred to bring it in person. After the deadline passed, his voter registration was canceled. Denton County election director Frank Phillips confirmed to NPR that Nel’s registration was removed because he had not yet proved his citizenship.
Phillips told NPR that Denton County sent notices to 84 registered voters who were flagged as potential noncitizens. Of those, 14 people had so far provided proof of citizenship and remained on the rolls. Another 14 were determined to have registered in error after indicating on their forms that they were not U.S. citizens; their registrations were canceled, and none had any voting history. The remaining 55 people — including five whose notices were returned as undeliverable — had their registrations canceled after not responding, in line with Texas election law, which instructs officials to remove voters who do not respond to such notices within 30 days or whose mail is returned with no forwarding address, NPR reports.
Nel’s name surfaced because Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson in October ran more than 18 million voter records through a federal data system known as SAVE — the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements — which the Trump administration overhauled this year and has encouraged states to use as a citizenship check, according to NPR. That search identified 2,724 people as “potential noncitizens” on Texas voter rolls, a figure that amounts to about 0.015% of registered voters in the state.
Nelson’s office instructed county election officials to investigate the flagged names, including by sending the type of notice Nel received. The full statewide list of flagged voters has not been made public, and there is not yet official statewide data on how many of those people were in fact U.S. citizens, NPR reports.
“I was confused because I have a passport. I’ve been voting for almost 10 years. Why is this happening now?” Nel said in an interview with NPR. “There’s no confirmation that someone received the letter. There are probably tons of people out there that have no idea that they’re no longer registered to vote.”
The experience of Nel and others has fueled long-standing concerns among election experts and voting rights advocates about using SAVE — originally designed to help verify eligibility for public benefits — as a voter eligibility tool. According to NPR’s reporting and federal materials it reviewed, SAVE does not reliably confirm citizenship for all foreign-born Americans, particularly those who derived or acquired citizenship as minors and may not have a separate Certificate of Citizenship.
Officials and advocates also worry about data handling and privacy. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, one of several state officials who have raised alarms about the revamped system, said in an interview with NPR that he is concerned the federal government is effectively creating a “giant omnibus database” of voter information without sufficient transparency about how the data will be stored, protected or used.
Local election officials in Texas have voiced practical concerns about the state’s SAVE-driven list. In Travis County, officials described the list of flagged voters as “unfiltered and unvetted,” noting to NPR that many of the people on it had previously shown proof of citizenship when they registered to vote at the Department of Public Safety while applying for a driver’s license or state ID.
Voting rights lawyer Danielle Lang of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center told NPR that relying on a single mailed notice is a flawed way to verify voter eligibility because some people may never receive or open the letter. Even when they do, she said, the process can pose extra hurdles for naturalized citizens who may not have ready access to their citizenship documents.
A survey commissioned last year by the University of Maryland’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement and the nonprofit VoteRiders found that 7% of adult U.S. citizens in Texas did not have easy access to proof of citizenship documents, a figure that rose to 12% among adults under 30, according to NPR’s summary of the study. Nel told NPR that for people without a passport, obtaining the necessary paperwork — such as foreign birth certificates or parents’ naturalization records — can be costly and time-consuming, effectively adding barriers to keeping their voter registrations active.
Chris McGinn, executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, told NPR that county officials around the state have reported modest response rates to the SAVE-related notices. From those early results, he said, the numbers do not support claims that large numbers of noncitizens are illegally registering and voting in Texas elections.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly alleged, without evidence, that noncitizen voting is widespread, and critics of the administration’s changes to SAVE have warned that the tool could be used to bolster unfounded narratives about election fraud, according to NPR’s reporting. While some supporters of the new checks argue that they are a way to improve the accuracy of voter rolls, officials and advocates interviewed by NPR say the early experience in Texas suggests that the system may be more likely to sweep in eligible voters like Nel than to uncover significant illegal voting.
