Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has enhanced the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to help states ensure that only U.S. citizens are eligible to vote in federal elections. States can now verify the citizenship of voters and voter registrants using the last four digits of an individual’s Social Security number, rather than requiring the full nine digits.

In September, ten residents of Alaska pleaded not guilty to charges related to voter misconduct, highlighting the complex citizenship status of individuals born in the U.S. territory of American Samoa. Most of those facing charges were born in American Samoa and live in the remote Alaska community of Whittier. The state claims they falsely asserted U.S. citizenship when registering or attempting to vote. An attorney for the defendants contends that many of them are indeed citizens.

Matthew Tragesser, a spokesman for USCIS, stated that the agency is committed to removing barriers that hinder the nation’s electoral process security. By allowing states to verify voter eligibility efficiently, they reinforce the principle that elections in America should be reserved exclusively for U.S. citizens. USCIS encourages all federal, state, and local agencies to utilize the SAVE program.

The enhancements to SAVE aim to preserve and protect the integrity of American elections. This system upgrade enables registered agencies, particularly those responsible for verifying voter rolls, to create a SAVE case without requiring a Department of Homeland Security identifier or a complete Social Security number. 

SAVE Optimization has enabled state voting agencies to submit over 46 million voter verification queries. It has also permitted federal agencies to submit over 110 million queries to verify eligibility for federally funded benefits. Together with SAVE’s status verifications for new benefit requests, this has resulted in more than 205 million status verification queries as of October 2025, compared to 25 million in all of calendar year 2024.

Currently, 26 states have established, or are in the process of establishing, a memorandum of agreement for voter verification with SAVE. Government officials at all levels across the states should be dedicated to eliminating voter fraud and restoring public confidence in America’s elections.

American Samoa is the only U.S. territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship by virtue of being born on U.S. soil, as outlined by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Instead, they are classified as U.S. nationals. American Samoans can serve in the military, obtain U.S. passports, and vote in elections within American Samoa. However, they cannot hold public office in the U.S. or participate in most U.S. elections, the exception being the vote for American Samoa’s delegate to the U.S. Congress.