TN Secretary of State finds 42 possible non-citizen voters, out state’s 4.3 million voters

The Brennan Center for Justice says a federal system to verify immigration status for government benefits, now being used for voting purposes, may not be fully reliable. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht/Tennessee Lookout)

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett notified the president he is referring 42 “potential non-U.S. citizens” to the FBI for illegal votes.

Those potential illegal voters account for 0.0001% of all registered voters in Tennessee.

Responding to a letter from President Donald Trump congratulating him for using the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, Hargett thanked the president for improving the system to help Tennessee “protect our voter rolls.” 

“The collaborative spirit and speed with which your administration worked to improve SAVE and make it available is unprecedented,” Hargett said in a letter posted on Facebook.

Hargett said his office is referring those who might not be U.S. citizens to the FBI for investigation.

The SAVE system is designed to help states verify citizenship and immigration status of people seeking government benefits. But states such as Tennessee use it to check people’s citizenship status for voting, even though some groups question its effectiveness.

The Brennan Center, a nonpartisan law and policy institute that advocates for democracy and justice, reports that information from SAVE is sometimes incomplete or old, making the program useful but not fully reliable in determining a person’s citizenship. 

The institute also said a move by the Department of Homeland Security to expand the amount of information accessible through SAVE increases the risk of states erroneously purging eligible voters from their rolls.

Tennessee had about 4.3 million registered voters as of June after purging some 276,000, according to the Secretary of State’s website.

Trump offered the program free of charge to states in March with an executive order to protect election integrity and make sure only U.S. citizens cast ballots.

“You were one of the first leaders to step up and protect the integrity of our elections by using the SAVE system — and I commend you for your decisive action,” Trump said in his letter to Hargett.