Voting Rights in Wisconsin: Verifying Citizenship Status with Voter Registration Data

Law Forward submitted public comment to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), objecting to the expansion of the scope and intended purposes of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system. The changes, framed as a means of ensuring noncitizens do not vote in U.S. elections, are simply not necessary. There is no credible evidence to suggest that noncitizens vote in sufficient numbers to impact election results. Law Forward strongly opposes the centralization of sensitive, personally identifiable information, the baseless reasons given to encourage states to use the system for voter eligibility verification, and the process by which these changes were made.

DHS’s Failure to Comply with Public Notice and Comment Requirements is Undemocratic

By soliciting public comment in October for changes implemented in May of 2025, DHS violated the requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974, which requires that any changes to the records it maintains or how, by whom, or for what purpose these records are used must be published for public comment at least 30 days before implementation.

This after-the-fact public comment period serves no purpose other than giving DHS’s changes the thinnest veneer of validity while entirely depriving the American public of a meaningful opportunity to influence DHS’s actions. Such deprivation of meaningful civic participation lacks transparency and is entirely undemocratic.

Centralizing Personally Identifiable Information is Dangerous

DHS’s overhaul of the SAVE system significantly expanded the personally identifiable data available for query. In so doing, DHS has made strides towards creating a centralized database of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. State and federal law are highly protective of personally identifiable information for a reason. Such information is extremely sensitive and, if accessed by nefarious parties (foreign or domestic), can be weaponized to harm not only individual people, but also the country and our institutions.

In Wisconsin, one bulwark against election fraud is our highly decentralized system. With over 1,850 individual jurisdictions managing elections at the local level, fraudulent activity on a large enough scale to impact election results is extremely difficult and evidence of fraud is exceedingly rare.

Using of the SAVE System to Verify Voter Eligibility Threatens the Right to Vote

Encouraging states to run their entire voter registration lists through the SAVE system threatens, rather than protects, the fundamental right to vote, especially for naturalized citizens. Though DHS claims that with data from the Social Security Administration, the SAVE system can be used to verify citizenship status for purposes of voter eligibility, Social Security data is widely recognized as unreliable in this regard. While the Social Security Administration receives information regarding citizenship or immigration status from applicants for Social Security Numbers, including permanent residents, there is no obligation for individuals or the Administration to update the data to reflect a change in citizenship status. It follows that naturalized citizens face a higher risk of being incorrectly flagged as noncitizens by the SAVE system.

No U.S. citizen should face an undue burden to vote, nor should certain groups of citizens be put at elevated risk of disenfranchisement. Law Forward opposes the changes articulated in Docket Number: USCIS-2025-0337 and requested that DHS return the scope and use of the SAVE system to its former state.

You can review Law Forward’s full public comment here. Find more about Law Forward’s thoughts on verifying citizenship status here.

By: Rachel Snyder, Policy Counsel. December 4, 2025.