A Virginia bill to direct the State Board of Elections to compare voter registration rolls to the federal “Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program” (SAVE Program) has been fast tracking through the state legislature this week.
Senate Bill 1077 authorizes the State Board to apply to participate in the SAVE Program to purge noncitizens from the voter rolls. The State Board would be responsible for deciding how it uses information culled from the SAVE Program in relation to its voter rolls.
While noncitizens are ineligible to vote and thus should be removed from rolls, it must be done with care and in compliance with federal law. As legislators in Colorado decided last week, comparing the state voter registration rolls to the SAVE Program can erroneously remove eligible voters from the state voter database.
We urge you to monitor this legislation carefully.