Utah’s Lieutenant Governor reports that a statewide citizenship review of voter rolls found more than 99.9 percent of registered voters are U.S. citizens, identified very few confirmed noncitizens, corrected systemic weaknesses, and emphasized the need to balance election integrity with protecting eligible voters’ rights. Assistance from ChatGPT AI.
Key Takeaways:
- More than 99.9 percent of Utah’s registered voters are verified U.S. citizens.
- Only one confirmed noncitizen was found in the main review, and that individual never voted.
- Hundreds of registrations require clarification due to incomplete or outdated information.
- Overly aggressive voter roll purges risk disenfranchising eligible voters.
- Federal citizenship verification databases are incomplete and prone to error.
Summary:
In a January 22, 2026 update, the Utah Office of the Lieutenant Governor outlined the progress and preliminary findings of an ongoing citizenship review of the state’s voter registration lists as Utah enters a new election year. Over the past five years, the office has worked with county clerks and legislators to strengthen voter list maintenance procedures, resulting in what it describes as the cleanest voter rolls the state has had.
The citizenship review, begun the previous year, has two primary goals: identifying any noncitizens registered to vote in Utah and evaluating voter registration processes for systemic or human errors that could allow ineligible registrations. Using an August snapshot of more than two million registered voters, the review found that more than 99.9 percent are verifiably U.S. citizens. One confirmed noncitizen was identified, never voted, and has been removed from the rolls.
The review also identified 486 active voters with incomplete or inaccurate registration information. These individuals were sent letters and new registration forms requesting updates by February 1. About one-third of these voters were imported into the statewide system in 2005, before Social Security numbers or driver license numbers were required for registration. This phase of the audit focused on voters listing a birthplace outside the United States; future steps will examine inactive voters and those with incomplete information who list a U.S. birthplace.
During the review, the office discovered a flaw in online voter registration that allowed forms to be submitted without automated citizenship validation. The website was immediately reprogrammed to require this check. Four noncitizen registrations that occurred before the fix were identified separately, removed from the rolls, and referred for investigation. These cases were discovered prior to the broader citizenship review and are not included in the confirmed noncitizen count.
The update stresses caution against overly aggressive purging of voter rolls. The lieutenant governor recounts a personal experience from the 2022 primary election, when her own voter registration was improperly inactivated because she was born overseas while her father served in the U.S. Air Force. The incident illustrated how eligible voters can be wrongly removed, violating federal law and individual rights.
The office also highlighted limitations of federal data. There is no comprehensive national database of U.S. citizens, and the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE program, used to verify citizenship, is described as frequently inaccurate. Of more than 71,000 voter records submitted to SAVE that could not be matched with state driver license data, DHS confirmed 88 percent as citizens, initially flagging thousands who were later cleared through manual review.
The office says it will continue the citizenship review and work with lawmakers and county clerks to further improve processes, aiming to ensure voter rolls remain accurate while safeguarding eligible voters from improper removal.
“Citizenship Review Update.” Office of the Lieutenant Governor, State of Utah, 22 Jan. 2026. https://drive.google.com/file/d/102Ecq5lgqBzch6CNe-kkqrPt_BxZ7s8V/view
