Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett is among a group of 21 secretaries of state who have sent a letter urging the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to implement changes to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program.
The SAVE program, according to DHS, is an online service for registered federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local government agencies to “verify immigration status and naturalized/acquired U.S. citizenship of applicants seeking benefits or licenses.”
The program is administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The letter, sent to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem last week, requests that five changes be made to the SAVE program to ensure that further noncitizens cannot vote or attempt to register to vote in elections moving forward.
“As President Trump has explicitly conveyed, ensuring noncitizens do not vote in our elections is crucial to protecting the integrity of elections in our respectful states. Disallowing interference from noncitizens in the elections process is a fundamental role we must not only assume, but champion,” the secretaries wrote.
The letter suggested five specific enhancements to the SAVE program, which the secretaries said would allow them to better serve voters across the country.
The first enhancement the secretaries are requesting for the SAVE program is the ability to search multiple voters at once to verify citizenship status. The secretaries said the current method of only being able to search one individual at a time “causes significant delays and overly burdensome staff time.”
Second, the secretaries said they would like to see an increase in the quantity of identifying information users may utilize when identifying individuals—including birthdates, social security numbers, and driver’s license numbers—instead of solely needing an individual’s Alien Identification Number or similar number assigned to them by DHS.
Third, the secretaries urged DHS to make the SAVE program free for states and eliminate the requirement of a user fee and fee per search, arguing, “[T]here should be no cost to election officials using federal resources to protect the integrity of said elections.”
The fourth enhancement the secretaries urged DHS to make is issuing “clear guidance” as to how and when state officials may utilize the SAVE program, pointing out how “Some courts have restricted states from implementing usage of the SAVE system based on conflicting guidance on implementation.”
Finally, the secretaries urged DHS to notify states of applicants for naturalization, saying that it “would be helpful to know” those who mark ‘Yes’ on the USCIS Form N-900, Part 9, Question 2 which asks, “Have you EVER registered to vote or voted in any Federal, state, or local election in the United States?”
In addition to Tennessee’s Hargett, the letter was also signed by the secretaries of state from Alabama, Montana, Arkansas, Nebraska, Georgia, New Hampshire, Idaho, Ohio, Indiana, Oklahoma, Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas, Kentucky, Utah, Louisiana, West Virginia, Mississippi, Wyoming, and Missouri.
When it comes to the secureness of Tennessee elections, the Volunteer State has consistently led the nation in maintaining the most secure elections, which includes its usage of the SAVE program to help verify noncitizens who attempt to vote, according to the Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard.
Tennessee’s current score is 90 out of 100 – the highest in the nation.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
