Mullin Presses 4 States to Use SAVE for Voter Rolls Despite 250,000 Claim Doubts
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Jul 19
Mullin Presses 4 States to Use SAVE for Voter Rolls Despite 250,000 Claim Doubts
3 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Jul 19
Summary
Friday letters from DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to work with the federal government by July 30 to scrub voter rolls after a preliminary review alleged 250,000 non-citizens were registered.
The push centers on the expanded SAVE database, but DHS did not explain how it verified the numbers or confirm whether SAVE was used to generate them, even as the letters cited matches involving Social Security numbers not found in public voter files.
State officials and election experts challenged both the data and the method: Nevada called the figures "wildly speculative," California said the conclusions inspired no confidence, and Brennan Center analysts said the results were effectively worthless.
Past state reviews have also exposed SAVE errors: Utah flagged nearly 9,000 records but confirmed only 27 non-citizens after manual checks, while Texas warned that some voters tagged by SAVE later produced proof of citizenship.
The dispute lands amid active litigation over the 2025 SAVE expansion, with a D.C. court blocking it over privacy and administrative-law violations while a Florida judge ordered continued access for four states.