Weber County citizenship review verifies 99.6% of voters, finds three noncitizens

OGDEN — A sweeping review of Weber County's voter rolls verified more than 99% of registered voters as U.S. citizens, while identifying three confirmed noncitizens who were subsequently removed from the rolls.

The results are drawing political attention as Utah continues to debate election security and requirements for proving citizenship to vote.

Utah Democrats highlighted Weber County's numbers this week, arguing the findings show concerns over noncitizen voting have been overstated.

But Weber County Clerk/Auditor Ricky Hatch said the numbers require some explanation, particularly the roughly 0.4% of voters who were not immediately verified.

"This was the audit that the state did, and it's actually not an audit," Hatch told KSL. "It's a full review of every single voter that was on the rolls."

Hatch said the statewide effort took about eight months and involved checking voter records against additional information that could establish citizenship.

Of 158,226 registered voters reviewed in Weber County, 99.6% were verified as U.S. citizens. The remaining fraction should not be interpreted as noncitizens, Hatch said. Three people on Weber County's rolls were confirmed to be noncitizens.

"They were all removed immediately once we were able to confirm that they were, in fact, noncitizens," Hatch said.

Hatch said one of those three had previously cast a ballot in 2018.

Hundreds initially could not be verified

Another 634 Weber County voters initially had citizenship statuses that could not be confirmed through the review.

That does not mean those voters are noncitizens.

Hatch said there are several reasons an eligible U.S. citizen may not immediately match government records, including clerical errors, incorrect digits in a Social Security number or birth date, or older voter registrations that lack some of the identifying information collected today.

The Utah Lieutenant Governor's Office has similarly cautioned against equating an unconfirmed record with a noncitizen.

State officials said many of the voters whose citizenship could not initially be confirmed registered years ago, before driver's license or Social Security information was required as part of the process.

Hatch said Weber County voters in that category were contacted and given an opportunity to provide proof of citizenship. At least half had responded and provided additional information by the time he spoke with us.

Those who remain unconfirmed are not being completely removed from the voter rolls. Under Utah's new citizenship requirements, they can receive a federal-only ballot until their citizenship is verified.

Statewide review found similar results

Weber County's results largely mirror the statewide picture.

The Utah Lieutenant Governor's Office began reviewing the state's voter registration rolls in April 2025 and ultimately cross-checked more than 2 million records against Driver License Division data and the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, known as SAVE.

The final report found that 99.72% of Utah's registered voters could be verified as U.S. citizens. State election officials identified 27 confirmed noncitizens, all of whom were removed from the voter rolls, along with 5,007 voters whose citizenship could not initially be confirmed.

Three of the 27 confirmed noncitizens were registered in Weber County, according to the state's report.

Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said when the statewide results were released that the review uncovered vulnerabilities that could be addressed while also protecting eligible voters from being improperly removed.

Hatch said he believes the Weber County numbers demonstrate the care election workers are taking with the voter rolls.

"We're not perfect, but we're extremely careful," Hatch said. "I think this confirms that we have been super careful."

The findings are likely to fuel both sides of Utah's ongoing debate over election safeguards: those who argue the extremely small number of confirmed noncitizens shows illegal registration is rare, and those who argue that finding any ineligible registrations demonstrates the value of citizenship verification.

For Hatch, the takeaway is less political.

He said Weber County's voter rolls are "cleaner now than they've ever been."

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