Noncitizens On Voter Rolls In A County Show Need For SAVE Act

In Fairfax County, Virginia, election officials quietly remove noncitizens from the voter rolls almost every month. In the past four years alone, the county has canceled 1,912 voter registrations belonging to individuals who identified themselves as noncitizens. None were discovered through a verification system; they surfaced only when the registrants voluntarily disclosed their status. This vulnerability exists by design, not by accident.

American election law does not permit verification of citizenship at the time of voter registration. Under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, states must accept and use the federal mail-in voter registration form created by the Election Assistance Commission. That form includes a checkbox for affirming citizenship and requires a signature under penalty of perjury, but it does not allow states to request documentation verifying citizenship. Virginia, like every other state, must operate within this framework.

The system therefore relies on enforcement after the fact rather than verification before registration occurs. Prosecutions for voter registration fraud are virtually nonexistent because such cases are resource-intensive and difficult to pursue. In September 2024, the Fairfax Office of Elections adopted a policy of referring canceled noncitizen registrants to the Virginia attorney general and Fairfax commonwealth’s attorney for investigation. The policy was recently rescinded on the grounds that it imposed a significant administrative burden, yet no prosecutions have occurred. Without a credible threat of prosecution, there is no deterrence.

In any system where accuracy matters, such as in banking or aviation, eligibility is verified at the front end. Prosecution after the fact is no substitute. It may deter some violations, but it cannot undo them or catch more than a fraction. Yet America’s voter registration system relies almost entirely on this backward approach, leaving it poorly equipped to ensure that only citizens register.

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known as the SAVE Act, would close this gap by requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. It would add the front-end safeguard that the current system lacks.

Why the System Catches So Few

Officials typically discover a noncitizen registration only when the individual identifies himself as a noncitizen during an unrelated government interaction. For example, a noncitizen registers to vote at a Virginia DMV, checking the “U.S. citizen” box. Months later, he receives a jury summons because voter rolls are used to identify potential jurors, and on the court questionnaire, he marks “noncitizen” to avoid serving. This triggers a notice to election officials, who then send him a letter asking him to affirm his citizenship.

If he admits he is not a citizen or fails to respond, his registration is canceled. But if he affirms citizenship again, with no proof required, he remains on the rolls. Either way, prosecution for perjury is extremely unlikely. And if he never receives a jury summons in the first place, the system may never discover the noncitizen registration at all. The system depends on accidental discovery and voluntary admission rather than systematic verification.

The Numbers Likely Understate the Problem

The Fairfax County data illustrate how often this occurs. In 2025, the county canceled 538 noncitizen voter registrations, more than one per day, and the totals for 2022 through 2024 amounted to 1,374, yielding a four-year total of 1,912.

But these numbers reveal only part of the problem. What is most striking is how limited the detection mechanism is. Virginia does not independently verify citizenship, so the only noncitizens removed from the voter rolls are those who identify themselves, meaning the 1,912 cancellations almost certainly represent a floor, not a ceiling.

Some may say this number is a small percentage, but that misses the point. The 1,912 figure represents only those noncitizens who happened to identify themselves through jury questionnaires or other incidental means, and a system that relies on chance discovery will inevitably miss many cases. If 1,912 ineligible registrations can be documented in a single county in just four years, there is little reason to believe the problem is small. Nor is it confined to Fairfax or Virginia. Federal law has created this systemic vulnerability across all 50 states, and every vote cast by a noncitizen cancels out the vote of an American citizen.

Only Congress Can Fix It

The SAVE Act would address the problem at its source by requiring documentary proof of citizenship when individuals register to vote. Rather than relying on a perjury warning that is rarely enforced, eligibility would be verified up front, before a name is added to the voter rolls. The bill passed the House in April 2025 and is now before the Senate.

In recent days, some, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have argued that citizenship verification should be left to the states. That argument ignores existing law. In Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council (2013), the Supreme Court ruled that the National Voter Registration Act bars states from requiring documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration. President Donald Trump attempted to address the gap by executive order in March 2025, directing the Election Assistance Commission to modify the federal form to require proof of citizenship. In October 2025, however, a federal judge permanently blocked the order, ruling that the president lacks authority to dictate election procedures.

The Election Assistance Commission likely has the statutory authority to change the form on its own. Three states asked it to do so in 2014, but the commission declined, finding that the threat of perjury prosecution was sufficient. The commission has four members, with no more than two from the same party, giving either side an effective veto, and in today’s political climate, it would be unrealistic to expect a proof-of-citizenship requirement to emerge from that body.

That leaves Congress as the only institution with both the authority and the potential to act.

The Fairfax evidence shows that noncitizen registration is not hypothetical but rather a documented vulnerability in the current system. The SAVE Act would close that vulnerability by verifying citizenship at registration rather than hoping violations are discovered later.

The right to vote is the crown jewel of American citizenship. It belongs to citizens alone, and our election system should be designed to ensure that principle is upheld from the start.

Jeffrey K. Shapiro is a resident of Fairfax County, Virginia. He recently completed a three-year term on the Fairfax County Board of Elections.