Secretary Raffensperger: SAVE was a Valuable Citizenship Verification Tool for States
Atlanta – Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is championing his office’s use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program after a federal judge blocked its usage.
“Ensuring only Americans vote in Georgia’s election has been a top priority of mine. I am disappointed to see a federal judge block states from using this valuable tool,” said Secretary Raffensperger. “Georgia is proud to have the most secure voter rolls in the country, in part because of the SAVE program. Through rigorous citizenship verification, regular list maintenance, and continuous data checks, we make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in the Peach State.”
Georgia was the first state in the nation to conduct citizenship verification of its voter rolls. Since 2022, the Secretary of State’s Office has successfully conducted two citizenship audits of its voter rolls and is currently conducting its third. Using information from the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS), Georgia identifies individuals who may be non-citizens based on documents previously provided to DDS. Georgia is 100% REAL ID-compliant, meaning that everyone who has a driver’s license or state identification card has verified their citizenship or legal immigration status with DDS.
Georgia then uses SAVE, or Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, a program offered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to verify the citizenship status of individuals identified as potential non-citizens.
In addition, Georgia uses jurors' statements of noncitizenship in the audit process.
In 2025, the Department of Homeland Security implemented critical updates to the SAVE program suggested by Secretary Raffensperger, including allowing election offices to submit multiple voter verification cases at once and expanding the types of identifiers allowed in verification requests.
“After running our voter list through multiple audit points, we remain confident in the accuracy and integrity of our voter rolls heading into November," said Secretary Raffensperger.