Trump continues push for voter data despite repeated court losses

President Donald Trump is continuing the unprecedented effort to secure sensitive voter data for his administration ahead of the midterm elections, despite repeated court losses — officially in a “hunt” for noncitizens registered illegally, although there is no evidence of widespread fraud of this kind.

On Friday, September 25, Department of Justice lawyers will ask federal district Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland, not to block the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from creating lists of eligible American citizen voters. The measure stems from a Trump executive order from March, which ordered DHS to compile the lists with data from across the federal government and share them with state election officials — while state officials could face criminal prosecution if ineligible persons who had voted were found.

So far, the Department of Justice has lost 25 different lawsuits in which it sought to force states to hand over complete voter rolls, including partial Social Security numbers. The Supreme Court this month also refused to allow curbs on mail voting. Meanwhile, DHS has obtained voter rolls from at least 47 of 50 states and is screening them for noncitizens — Reuters reported Thursday, citing an internal email — also using data from a commercial data broker.

The federal immigration database SAVE — one of the sources the executive order forces DHS to consult — has misflagged naturalized, regularly registered American citizens as noncitizens. A Reuters review published Wednesday found that software errors and clerical mistakes in twelve states may have added over 30,000 self-declared noncitizens to voter rolls since 2000 — a number far too small to affect elections. In New Jersey, a glitch added 6,600 noncitizens in 2023–2024, but fewer than 400 of them voted.

Reuters’ July investigation found that only 129 people have been criminally prosecuted for noncitizen voting since the 1996 law, while the Department of Justice charged 20 more this month. White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said “despite claims… evidence of noncitizens registering and voting continues to accumulate.” Voting rights attorney Marc Elias responded: “You can’t do mass disenfranchisement without a voter file,” while CREW attorney John Hill said Trump’s threat of criminal prosecution of states implies an effort to force states to use DHS lists to purge voters.

A federal judge in another case has blocked the use of the revamped SAVE for voter verification; the administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow it, but the justices have not decided yet. Even if the administration wins, the order required the lists to be shared 60 days before the elections — which would have been September 4.

Source: Reuters