Raffensperger Encourages Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to Prioritize Enhancements to the SAVE Program

February 3rd, 2025

Atlanta — Today, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger issued a formal request to the newly appointed Secretary of Homeland Security, The Honorable Kristi Noem, urging critical improvements to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program. In the letter, Secretary Raffensperger congratulates Noem on her appointment, and emphasized the importance of enhancing the SAVE program to assist states more effectively in verifying citizenship for voter registration and maintaining election integrity. He outlined several key recommendations to modernize and improve the system:

  • Expanded Search Capabilities: Allowing state election officials to utilize additional personal identifying information (PII) such as dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and driver's license numbers during SAVE searches, instead of relying solely on Alien Registration Numbers or DHS receipt numbers.
  • Timely Database Updates: Ensuring the SAVE database is frequently updated to reflect the status of newly naturalized citizens promptly.
  • Elimination of Access Fees: Granting states free access to the SAVE system to conduct citizenship verification, removing the financial barriers currently faced by state election offices.
  • Clear Usage Guidance: Providing comprehensive guidance to state election officials on how and when to use the SAVE system, to ensure consistent application across all states and avoid legal conflicts.

“Enhancing the SAVE program will significantly reduce the burdens faced by states in verifying citizenship and maintaining accurate voter rolls,” said Secretary Raffensperger. “We’ve fought to protect Georgia’s citizenship verification system not once, but twice. These improvements are critical to protecting the integrity of our elections and ensuring that only lawful U.S. citizens participate in the democratic process.”

The letter concludes by asking Secretary Noem's commitment to improving the usability, availability, and reliability of the SAVE program. At a recent conference, like-minded state election officials expressed their readiness to collaborate with DHS to implement these necessary reforms, reinforcing their shared goal of safeguarding election security and public confidence in our elections.

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Georgia is recognized as a national leader in elections. It was the first state in the country to implement the trifecta of automatic voter registration, at least 17 days of early voting (which has been called the “gold standard”), and no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia continues to set records for voter turnout and election participation, seeing the largest increase in average turnout of any other state in the 2018 midterm election and record turnout in 2020, and 2022. 2022 achieved the largest single day of in-person early voting turnout in Georgia midterm history utilizing Georgia’s secure, paper ballot voting system. Most recently, Georgia ranked #2 for Election Integrity by the Heritage Foundation, a top ranking for Voter Accessibility by the Center for Election Innovation & Research and tied for number one in Election Administration by the Bipartisan Policy Center.