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Representative Miller presses Minnesota elections official on noncitizen voting; Secretary Simon says state vets rolls and is not using federal SAVE database
Summary
In questioning at a House committee hearing, Representative Miller asked Minnesota elections official Secretary Simon what steps the state takes to prevent illegal noncitizen voting and whether it uses the federal SAVE verification system; Simon said Minnesota regularly vets voter rolls against public records, has referred cases for prosecution (numbers not specified), and is not accessing SAVE without a law change.
Representative Miller of Illinois pressed Secretary Simon on whether Minnesota has taken steps to minimize illegal voting by noncitizens and whether the state is using the federal SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database.
Secretary Simon replied that Minnesota maintains ongoing screening of its voter rolls. “We screen every single one of our millions of voters regularly against things like court records, driver's license records, public safety information, conviction information, and the like,” Simon said, adding that the vetting process is “sometimes daily.”
When asked whether her office had referred cases of suspected noncitizen voting to prosecutors, Simon said the office has made referrals and offered to provide the number: “Yes,” she said, “I can get you that information.” The specific count was not provided in the hearing record.
Representative Miller questioned how the state could know whether someone who holds a Minnesota driver’s license is a citizen, noting that the state’s Drivers and Vehicle Services does not track undocumented status on standard licenses. Simon responded that a driver’s license is not proof of U.S. citizenship and observed that states have long issued licenses to noncitizens: “There’s no distinguishing,” she said when asked whether a license would identify a person as a noncitizen.
On the federal SAVE system, Miller referenced a White House briefing and testimony that there is not a ready state or federal database for citizenship verification. Secretary Simon said she had attended a bipartisan White House meeting of secretaries but that Minnesota is not using the SAVE database: “We are not. We have come to the judgment that it is not yet ready for use in Minnesota and would require our legislature to change our law,” she said.
Representative Miller also made broader claims alleging that the federal government under President Joe Biden had allowed "unvetted" people across the border in large numbers (he cited a figure of "possibly 20 million"), and he urged use of legislative measures such as the SAVE America/MEGA Act to ensure only eligible voters cast ballots. Those assertions were made by Miller and were not quantified or corroborated by evidence in the hearing transcript.
The hearing record shows two clear next steps: Secretary Simon said she would provide the number of referrals her office has sent to prosecutors, and she indicated the use of the federal SAVE database would require statutory change in Minnesota. The transcript does not show a vote or formal committee action on those items during the exchange.
