The Texas Secretary of State sent voter registration data for 18 million Texans to the Federal Department of Justice. State officials signed an agreement with the Trump Administration to remove ineligible voters.
Across the country, the Trump Administration is trying to compile voter registration data state by state. Around 20 states are in a legal battle, while Texas and another dozen states complied and shared data for millions of registered voters.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott wrote online, “We want our voter rolls to be checked for potential ineligible registrations. Only U.S. citizens can vote in Texas.”
Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson’s office regularly reviews voter data to ensure ineligible voters and non-citizens are removed from the rolls, but they were comfortable with the federal government conducting checks as well.
Their general counsel wrote to the DOJ that they “are providing the requested data with the understanding that the Department will comply with all applicable laws.”
“The problem here is really that the federal government has no authority under the United States Constitution to be telling states what the qualifications to vote are. That’s a state’s right,” said Daniel Freeman, director of litigation from the Democratic National Committee. Freeman sent a letter to state officials and is monitoring the situation in Texas to ensure that eligible voters are not removed from the list. He mentions that there can sometimes be confusion and fixable issues before voting deadlines.
“And Texas also knows that these database matches can have mistakes. The state settled a lawsuit in 2019 when it misidentified tens of thousands of United States citizens as being non-citizens,” said Freeman.
So now, basic information such as names, dates of birth, and the last four digits of your Social Security number is part of the beginnings of a national voter database ahead of this November election.
Texas SOS letters to the DOJ