Trump seeks to use DHS database

Voter verification system in the works

Critics warn of threat to legitimate voters

The US Supreme Court has allowed the use of a noncitizen voter-screening tool that President Donald Trump is pushing ahead of the November midterm elections to prevent electoral fraud. [EPA]
The US Supreme Court has allowed the use of a noncitizen voter-screening tool that President Donald Trump is pushing ahead of the November midterm elections to prevent electoral fraud. [EPA]

The US Supreme Court has cleared the way for a noncitizen voter-screening tool that President Donald Trump is pushing ahead of the November midterm elections to combat electoral fraud.

According to US media reports Saturday (local time), the Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling Friday, allowing states to use the Department of Homeland Security's Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, known as SAVE, to verify voter rolls.

SAVE was originally a database used to confirm the citizenship and immigration status of applicants to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving US welfare benefits or government services.

The Trump administration last year expanded and overhauled the system, adding Social Security Administration records and introducing a bulk-search function that allows simultaneous queries on multiple individuals.

It also directed state election authorities to use the system to check the citizenship status of registered voters.

The administration has maintained that a voter verification tool drawing on federal databases is essential to prevent illegal voting by noncitizens and protect electoral integrity. Trump has long alleged that illegal votes cast by noncitizens distorted the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Civil rights groups, however, filed a lawsuit arguing that the federal government had improperly consolidated and shared the personal data of millions of people in the process.

In June, US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan ruled that the Trump administration's expanded SAVE program violated the Privacy Act, the Social Security Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. The court also said erroneous data could put legitimate voters at risk of being purged from voter rolls.

The court immediately invalidated the overhauled SAVE system and banned its use entirely. A federal appeals court upheld that ban.

The Trump administration then appealed to the Supreme Court, and the conservative-majority court sided with the administration, staying the lower courts' injunction against SAVE. In effect, the ruling opens the door for state election authorities to use the system before the midterm elections.

The Supreme Court said the lower court order "prevents the federal government from using the program it has determined is best suited for the task."

Critics warn the system could prevent legitimate voters from casting ballots. Anthony Nels, a Texas voter, told the Associated Press the system "violates people's constitutional right to vote" and that it "appears to be yet another improper tool to influence the upcoming election and future elections."


greg@heraldcorp.com