- Sen. Mike Lee said Utah bill that requires proof of citizenship to vote is an example of the state leading the way.
- A review by the Utah Lieutenant Governor's Office has so far found one confirmed noncitizen on Utah voter rolls.
- Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said these efforts must be careful not to accidentally kick citizens off of the voter rolls.
U.S. Sen. Mike Lee said Utah is an example to follow for its efforts to verify voter citizenship as the senator comes closer to passing his voter ID law in Congress.
More than a year after it was first introduced, Lee’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act appears to be gaining traction as Republicans seek to make good on President Donald Trump’s campaign promises.
Meanwhile, Utah GOP legislators are backing a bill, HB209, that would create a process for county clerks to verify documentary proof of U.S. citizenship during voter registration, in line with the Utah Constitution.
“While we fight to pass the SAVE Act in the Senate, state-level citizenship requirements for voting and registration will be a vital tool to secure American elections and ensure citizen-only voting,” Lee said. “As ever, Utah leads the way.”
The Utah legislation would mirror that in a handful of Republican-leaning states that empower clerks to independently determine whether a registered voter is not a citizen and to bar participation in state elections.
As Lee, in Washington, D.C., and lawmakers in Utah clamp down on loopholes that may allow for noncitizens to vote, Utah’s chief election officer is also concluding an unprecedented citizenship review of Utah’s voter rolls.
What has the citizenship review found?
On Friday, the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office, which oversees elections in the state, provided an update on its review of noncitizens who are registered to vote.
After analyzing over 2 million records, election officials have so far identified just one noncitizen who was actively registered on voter rolls, but who never voted.
The individual checked the “noncitizen” box on the voter registration form but was still registered by the county clerk in a “clerical error” likely committed out of “some sort of confusion,” Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said.
Before the review began in April, the office identified four noncitizens who registered online to vote. The four were removed from voter rolls and are under investigation. It is unclear whether they voted, according to Henderson.
After confirming the citizenship of more than 99.9% of Utah voters, Henderson’s team is still working through roughly 7,000 records that could not be verified by using state drivers license information or federal databases.
Meanwhile, the office has updated the online voter registration process to prevent noncitizens from completing an application and Henderson is collaborating on HB209 to clarify when clerks can request proof of citizenship.
A problem of federal data?
One of Henderson’s takeaways from the comprehensive citizenship review, which she believes is the first in Utah history, is that federal databases are not a foolproof way to identify noncitizens on voter rolls, she said.
“There is no centralized federal database with a list of U.S. citizens,” Henderson told the Deseret News. “The states need to do further checks to find out. The federal government does not have good data.”
More than 95% of the 2,069,640 voters registered in August could be immediately confirmed as citizens by the Lieutenant Governor’s Office when comparing the state’s voter database with Driver License Division records.
The office then entered a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Homeland Security to use its SAVE program — which compiles Social Security, change of address and death records to determine welfare eligibility.
The program confirmed the citizenship of all but 8,836 of the remaining registered voters. But the database cannot “confirm noncitizenship,” Henderson said. So the Lieutenant Governor’s Office has begun manually inspecting each of the records.
The office found that 77% of the 2,119 active voters born outside the U.S. were citizens. On Jan. 13, the office asked the final 486 actively registered voters who could not be confirmed as citizens to complete a new registration form before Feb. 1.
The office will also inspect the roughly 6,700 records of inactive voters and those with incomplete information who said they were born within the U.S. The review will be published “as soon as we can track down as many of these voters as possible,” Henderson said.
Utah brings Sen. Lee’s SAVE Act to the state level
HB209 outlines what steps clerks can take if they cannot confirm citizenship, according to Henderson, who pointed out that, due to an election law passed last year, all Utah voters will soon be required to have state ID.
HB209, which is sponsored by Rep. Cory Maloy, R-Lehi, sailed through its first committee hearing on Wednesday with the blessing of House Speaker Mike Schultz, and the endorsement of the state’s top election administrators.
The bill would create a “bifurcated ballot system,” similar to that used for military service members in the state, that would provide voters a federal-only ballot if they refuse to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship.
If a registered voter has not provided proof of citizenship — with a drivers license, birth certificate, passport, tribal card or naturalization document — then clerks are instructed to notify the individual they cannot vote in state elections.
Schultz, R-Hooper, and Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, both called the bill “common sense” this week, with Adams predicting on Friday that the desire to prevent noncitizens from voting is “probably unanimous up here.”
Over in the U.S. House, GOP leaders have signaled that Lee’s SAVE Act is a priority. The bill would amend the National Voter Registration Act to allow states to require REAL ID identification in order to vote in federal elections.
In addition to adding penalties for knowingly registering a noncitizen, the bill would provide alternate ways of proving citizenship to ensure citizens aren’t prevented from voting if they do not have certain forms of identification.
Any federal reform must actually accomplish “the intended goal,” Henderson said. In 2022, she was removed from voter rolls when her county clerk interpreted her birth on a foreign military base to mean she was not a U.S. citizen.
“We have worked in our state to balance accessibility and security,” Henderson said. “We want to make sure that only eligible voters are registered. We also want to make sure that we don’t erroneously kick off the voter rolls any eligible voters.”