Citizenship audit finds 9 noncitizens attempted to register to vote in Fayette County

(Atlanta) — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has conducted the first citizenship review of Georgia’s voter rolls in the state’s history.

The review found that that 9 people who had attempted to register to vote in Fayette County were not able to be verified by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program.

1,634 individuals were identified and prevented from registering in total across Georgia. Due to Georgia’s existing citizenship check procedures, the noncitizens identified in the citizenship check were placed into “pending citizenship” status and were not able to vote.

“Ensuring that only citizens are voting in Georgia’s elections is key to upholding the integrity of the vote in Georgia,” said Raffensperger. “As liberal states and cities around the country are changing their laws to allow noncitizen voting, I will continue to take steps to ensure Georgia’s elections are executed with integrity. Leading the state’s first citizenship audit of the voter rolls is an important part of that effort.”

Raffensperger conducted the first audit of Georgia’s voter rolls for citizenship status in the state’s history. The audit proved that Georgia’s citizenship check procedures are working and are vital to ensuring secure elections.

The review consisted of gathering additional data from the Georgia Department of Driver Services and the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The review utilized USCIS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program.

The search found 1,634 individuals who had attempted to register to vote in Georgia despite not being citizens. Of those, 9 were in Fayette County. In total, 2,258 voter registration applications are currently in “pending citizenship” status. The difference between the two numbers is because there were 624 records where the Secretary of State’s office was not able to obtain the required information to utilize the SAVE verification tool.

Those additional 624 applicants remain in “pending citizenship” status because the citizenship check with the Department of Driver Services at the time of registration flagged those applicants as non-citizens according to DDS records. All 2,258 individuals were placed in pending status and not added to the voter rolls. None of these individuals have cast ballots in Georgia elections.