The U.S. Supreme Court has revived for now a federal data system the Department of Homeland Security revamped into a tool to check the citizenship of millions of Americans on voter rolls. The tool has mistakenly flagged some eligible voters as potential noncitizens.
The news comes as the Trump administration has been pouring resources into searching for noncitizens on voter rolls ahead of the upcoming election. The Supreme Court’s decision opens the way for the administration to use its expanded version of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements data system — known as SAVE — in that hunt, as well as in its unprecedented project of compiling lists of adult citizens in each state.
…
Even though Election Day is just over a month away and voting is underway, the Trump administration could try to make use of the expanded version of SAVE right away in its quest to check registered voters’ citizenship.
An executive order President Trump signed in March calls for federal agencies to consult SAVE data, along with other federal records, to create state-by-state lists of adult U.S. citizens. The same order directs the U.S. attorney general to prioritize investigating and prosecuting election officials who provide ballots to ineligible voters. Even though the executive order says such state lists are to be completed 60 days before an election and that deadline has already passed, federal officials have indicated the project is still underway — although it is facing a legal challenge.
5 days