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Just ahead of the start for early in-person voting, the North Carolina State Board of Elections this week sent letters to nearly 1,400 registered voters flagged as potential noncitizens.
The board identified these voters through SAVE, a federal immigration and citizenship database. The 1,392 people flagged make up about 0.02% of North Carolina's nearly 8 million registered voters.
A match on the database doesn't prove someone is ineligible to vote. Citizenship information may be incomplete or outdated, particularly for people who have become naturalized U.S. citizens.
The letters will ask recipients to provide information verifying their citizenship or, if they registered to vote in error, to request removal from the voter rolls. The board says no one will be removed automatically, and receiving a letter won't prevent an eligible voter from voting in November's election.
It is illegal for noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections. North Carolina's in-person early voting begins Thursday.
