A Department of Homeland Security memo from July found more than 400,000 deceased individuals listed on voter rolls across 25 states using the federal SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) system, just days before critical midterm elections. The review covered about 68 million voter records and highlighted persistent registration issues in several battleground states.

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The presence of deceased registrants on voter rolls has drawn scrutiny as control of the U.S. Senate could hinge on close contests in states such as Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, and Kansas.

Election integrity and the accuracy of voter rolls have been ongoing concerns, with federal laws like the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act requiring states to regularly update and clear ineligible registrants. Watchdog groups and state officials report progress, but significant numbers remain.

State-by-State Findings

In Maine, the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) filed a Help America Vote Act complaint after finding 3,181 deceased individuals still registered, down from 18,000 following a July review. The group also identified 693 duplicate registrations in the state. North Carolina's rolls showed 1,377 deceased voters, a drop from over 12,000 in 2020, according to PILF data.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose reported that his office has removed 691,824 deceased voters since 2019. The SAVE system identified 59,774 dead registrants in Ohio since the state began using the system in 2024. "We have 99% of deceased voters off the rolls," LaRose told the Daily Signal. "Ohio voter rolls are more accurate than at any point in the 220-year history of the state."

PILF data indicated that Ohio reduced its count of deceased voters from 7,368 in 2020 to just 32 as of last September, while Iowa dropped from 3,000 to 25 over the same period. Tennessee identified 37,850 deceased individuals through the SAVE system, and state officials say those voters have been removed in accordance with state and federal law.

Election Officials Respond

Texas, which faces a closely watched Senate race, identified 111,573 deceased people on its rolls, according to the DHS memo. Alicia Pierce, spokeswoman for Texas Secretary of State Rob Howden, said ineligible voter information is sent to counties for investigation. Georgia identified 42,776 deceased registrants, with state officials confirming the numbers and notifying counties.

Kansas, also with a competitive Senate contest, had 10,197 dead people registered according to the federal memo. However, John Milburn, spokesman for Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, said the federal figures do not match the state's own data. "Voters are continually removed in compliance with the provisions of Kansas and Federal Law," Milburn said.

Spokespersons for top election officials in North Carolina and Michigan did not respond to inquiries about the current status of their voter rolls.

A 2020 PILF study found 349,773 apparently deceased registered voters across 41 states, with large states like New York, Texas, Michigan, Florida, and California accounting for most of the total. Since then, several states have reported significant improvements. Michigan reduced its number of deceased registrants from 25,975 in 2020 to 1,745, and California dropped from 14,800 in 2025 to 9,800 currently.

Instances of voter fraud involving deceased individuals have been prosecuted. Recent cases include a Minnesota woman pleading guilty in October 2025 to voting on behalf of her dead mother, a Florida man convicted in December 2023 for voting as his dead father, and similar convictions in Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado. The Heritage Foundation Election Fraud database documents 54 convictions for election crimes related to misusing a deceased person’s name, including voting and forging signatures.

"My new conclusion on this is that this stuff never fixes. It keeps showing up and people keep slipping through the cracks."

β€” J. Christian Adams, President, Public Interest Legal Foundation

Ongoing Concerns and Criticism

J. Christian Adams, president of PILF, pointed to persistent vulnerabilities, especially in states with all-mail elections such as California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. "California shouldn’t be mailing out ballots to deceased people," Adams said. "You don’t want to erect new vulnerabilities in elections that are already vulnerable."

Despite improvements, critics argue that even small numbers of ineligible voters could affect outcomes in tight races. Some past Senate contests have been decided by margins of a few hundred votes. Supporters of current state practices note that ongoing efforts are being made to comply with federal and state laws, and several states have reported substantial progress in cleaning up their rolls.