Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson announced Monday that a comprehensive election review has identified more than 2,700 possible illegal immigrants registered on the state’s voter rolls.
The discovery came after state officials conducted a full comparison of Texas’s 18 million registered voters against federal citizenship records in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ SAVE database.
Nelson said the crosscheck has led to an eligibility review across all 254 counties in the state.
“Only eligible United States citizens may participate in our elections,” Nelson said.
“The Trump Administration’s decision to give states free and direct access to this data set for the first time has been a game changer, and we appreciate the partnership with the federal government to verify the citizenship of those on our voter rolls and maintain accurate voter lists.”
State officials identified 2,724 potential noncitizens whose voter files have been sent to local counties for further investigation.
The secretary of state’s office said this process falls under Chapter 16 of the Texas Election Code, which requires counties to verify each voter’s eligibility and remove confirmed noncitizens from the rolls.
Nelson said the review represents an effort to maintain an accurate voter list and to safeguard election integrity ahead of the 2026 election cycle.
The secretary of state emphasized the importance of protecting voting rights while ensuring only eligible citizens participate.
“Everyone’s right to vote is sacred and must be protected,” Nelson said.
“We encourage counties to conduct rigorous investigations to determine if any voter is ineligible – just as they do with any other data set we provide.”
Each flagged voter will receive a notice from their county registrar giving them 30 days to provide proof of U.S. citizenship.
If a voter does not respond, their registration will be canceled, though it can be reinstated immediately once proof of citizenship is provided.
Nelson’s statement said confirmed noncitizens who voted in previous Texas elections will be referred to the attorney general’s office for further review and potential prosecution.
The announcement comes amid growing national scrutiny of voter rolls as several states have conducted similar audits of voter eligibility.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) said that since Senate Bill 1 was signed into law, Texas has removed more than one million ineligible or outdated registrations from the state’s voter rolls.
Abbott called the effort essential to safeguard Texans’ right to vote.
“These reforms have led to the removal of over one million ineligible people from our voter rolls in the last three years, including noncitizens, deceased voters, and people who moved to another state,” Abbott said.
“The Secretary of State and county voter registrars have an ongoing legal requirement to review the voter rolls, remove ineligible voters, and refer any potential illegal voting to the Attorney General’s Office and local authorities for investigation and prosecution.”
“Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated. We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting.”
Abbott has called the initiative proof that Texas is “leading the nation in election integrity.”
Fox News reported that several states including Georgia, Arizona, and Florida have conducted similar audits of voter eligibility.
A breakdown of the information released by the secretary of state’s office showed Harris County with the largest number of potential noncitizens at 362, followed by Dallas County with 277, Bexar County with 201 and El Paso County with 165.
Smaller counties, including Andrews, Llano and Cooke, reported fewer than ten flagged registrations.
All 254 Texas counties were included in the SAVE database review.
Counties began sending verification notices this week as part of the 30-day review process.
In June, Nelson announced that she had referred to the office of attorney general to investigate the names of 33 potential noncitizens who voted in the November 2024 General Election.
The statement released by Nelson said the referral came within weeks of Texas gaining access to the SAVE Database.
“Gaining access to this database has been a game-changer. Not only have we been able to identify individuals who should not have voted in the last election, we have also been able to confirm naturalization of dozens more,” Secretary Nelson said.
