DHS Involvement in Critical Voter Roll Maintenance in Key States

DHS Involvement in Critical Voter Roll Maintenance in Key States

After decades of resistance, DHS is finally helping Republican-led states purge non-citizens from voter rolls just months before the most contentious election in modern history.

At a Glance

  • Arizona counties will collaborate with DHS to verify citizenship status of registered voters
  • Republican-led states have removed over 1 million people from voter rolls, including thousands of suspected non-citizens
  • GOP passed the SAVE Act to impose new federal requirements for proving citizenship during voter registration
  • Democrats and voting rights groups claim purges risk disenfranchising eligible voters, particularly naturalized citizens
  • The timing of these purges just before the 2024 election has intensified partisan tensions

Arizona Leads Fight Against Non-Citizen Voting

In a victory for election integrity advocates, Arizona counties have agreed to partner with the Department of Homeland Security to verify the citizenship status of registered voters. This collaboration, resulting from a settlement with America First Legal, represents a significant shift in addressing concerns about non-citizens potentially voting in American elections. Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county and a crucial battleground in presidential elections, has initiated communications with DHS to verify voters lacking Documentary Proof of Citizenship (DPOC).


“I promised the voters of Maricopa County that I would pursue every avenue to clean up our voter rolls, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. Ensuring only citizens can cast a ballot in future elections is essential to restoring trust in Maricopa County elections. It is my sincere hope that DHS will respond affirmatively and provide the resources we need to run comprehensive checks of our voter registration system against their non-citizen database. ‘One citizen, one vote’ isn’t just a slogan, it is the right of every American citizen.” 

Nationwide Movement to Clean Voter Rolls

Arizona’s efforts are just one part of a broader movement across Republican-led states to verify voter eligibility. Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the removal of over 1 million people from the state’s voter rolls since 2021, including 6,500 potential non-citizens. Virginia has removed 6,303 non-citizens using DMV and Homeland Security data, while Alabama identified 3,251 people with non-citizen identification numbers and designated them as inactive voters until they can provide proof of citizenship.

Tennessee has also joined the fight, sending notices to over 14,000 suspected non-citizens. Only 22% responded to confirm their citizenship status – which begs the question about the remaining 78%. Meanwhile, North Carolina announced the removal of 750,000 people from its voter rolls, a move that has predictably drawn criticism from Democrats given its timing before the 2024 presidential election. Yet these actions are simply fulfilling legal requirements to maintain accurate voter lists.

The Left’s Predictable Resistance

Democrats and their allies in voting rights organizations have responded with their typical accusations of voter suppression and disenfranchisement. They claim that these purges may wrongly remove eligible naturalized citizens from voter rolls and potentially violate federal law prohibiting systematic voter removal within 90 days of a federal election. But what they fail to acknowledge is that maintaining accurate voter rolls is both a legal requirement and essential to election integrity.

“Releasing these numbers without context is a thinly disguised attempt to intimidate voters of color and naturalized citizens from exercising their rights to vote, which is particularly concerning given the upcoming election”

This tired narrative conveniently ignores the reality that non-citizen voting directly dilutes the votes of legal citizens and undermines our democratic process. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose rightly objects to the term “purging,” noting its intentionally negative connotation for what is simply routine voter list maintenance required by law. The GOP’s passage of the SAVE Act, imposing new federal requirements for proving citizenship when registering to vote, represents another common-sense approach to protecting our elections.

The Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher

While the left continues to insist that non-citizen voting is “vanishingly small,” they never seem to question why they’ve fought tooth and nail against every effort to verify citizenship status at the polls. If it’s such a non-issue, why the relentless resistance to simple verification? The truth is that every illegal vote cancels out a legitimate one, and in swing states where elections are often decided by razor-thin margins, even small numbers of illegitimate votes can alter outcomes and undermine our republic.

“We know that the number of non-citizens who vote is a vanishingly small number based on all available evidence”

With more than 8 million illegal immigrants welcomed into our country under the Biden-Harris administration, ensuring that only American citizens participate in our elections has never been more critical. The left’s unrelenting opposition to voter roll maintenance isn’t about protecting voting rights – it’s about maintaining a system vulnerable to exploitation. As we approach one of the most consequential elections in American history, we should all be grateful that Republican officials are finally taking the necessary steps to guarantee that only legal citizens participate in selecting America’s leaders.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR