By SCM Staff Writer I Tuesday, Nov. 04, 2025
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced significant upgrades to its Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, enabling states to more easily confirm the citizenship status of individuals on their voter rolls.
The key technical change allows participating state voting agencies to verify a voter’s or voting registrant’s citizenship using only the last four digits of their Social Security number, rather than requiring the full nine digits. This enhancement is intended to streamline the verification process and expand the system’s utility for election integrity purposes.
“USCIS remains dedicated to eliminating barriers to securing the nation’s electoral process,” said USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser. “By allowing states to efficiently verify voter eligibility, we are reinforcing the principle that America’s elections are reserved exclusively for American citizens. We encourage all federal, state, and local agencies to use the SAVE program.”
Enhanced Verification and Executive Order
The system upgrade is part of USCIS’s efforts to implement Executive Order 14248, titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.”
The enhancement allows registered user agencies, particularly those verifying voter rolls, to create a SAVE case without needing a complete Social Security number or a Department of Homeland Security identifier—a move USCIS touts as critical for agencies focused on cleaning up voter lists.
The use of the SAVE program for voter verification has grown rapidly.
Since optimization, state voting agencies have submitted over 46 million voter verification queries.
Furthermore, the combined initiatives, including those verifying eligibility for federally funded benefits, have resulted in more than 205 million total status verification queries as of October 2025, a significant surge compared to the 25 million queries processed in all of calendar year 2024.
State Adoption and Call for Increased Participation
Despite the program’s expansion and the federal government’s encouragement, the adoption rate by states remains incomplete.
Currently, only 26 states have established, or are in the process of establishing, a memorandum of agreement with the SAVE program for voter verification.
The USCIS statement also included a broad appeal to local and state authorities.
“Government officials at all levels in all states should be committed to eliminating voter fraud and restoring faith in America’s elections,” the provided material stated, underscoring the federal government’s commitment to the program as a primary tool for securing electoral rolls against non-citizens voting.
