{"id":346330,"date":"2026-06-23T00:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T00:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/346330\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T00:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T00:27:16","slug":"feds-blocked-from-using-save-database-for-voter-eligibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/346330\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds blocked from using SAVE database for voter eligibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

This coverage is made possible through Votebeat<\/a>, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting access. Sign up for Votebeat Texas\u2019 free newsletters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration\u2019s overhaul of an immigration verification system to check voter eligibility across the nation, striking down a central pillar of the government\u2019s efforts to exercise more federal control over elections.<\/p>\n

The judge cited Texas\u2019 use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database, which flagged several voters who were actually citizens<\/a> as noncitizens, as evidence that it threatened both privacy and voting rights less than five months before the November midterm election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,\u201d Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said in her 75-page ruling<\/a>. \u201cThis Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sooknanan\u2019s decision does not eliminate SAVE, a decades-old immigration-status verification program. But it blocks the Trump administration\u2019s 2025 overhaul of the system, which made it easier for states to check their voter rolls against the federal database, which includes individuals\u2019 citizenship status and Social Security numbers. <\/p>\n

Election officials have found that the modified database, however, is prone to error<\/a>, something Sooknanan referenced in her decision. Federal officials, she wrote, \u201chaphazardly combined and repurposed the private information of millions of Americans, including citizenship data that they knew to be unreliable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling could strengthen challenges by voters who were removed, flagged, or placed under review by the system.<\/p>\n

\u201cStates have partnered with the federal government to access the database and are actively removing United States citizens from voter rolls based on inaccurate information,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

Voting rights groups, Trump administration react to ruling<\/p>\n

The case was filed by the League of Women Voters and other groups who argued that the SAVE system was inaccurate and that using it to check voter rolls violated citizen privacy rights. <\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s decision is a resounding victory for voters,\u201d said Marcia Johnson, chief of activation and justice for the League of Women Voters. \u201cEfforts to create a federal voter database to facilitate voter purges threaten the fundamental right at the heart of our democracy.\u201d <\/p>\n

Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School who worked in the White House on democracy and voting rights issues under President Joe Biden, agreed that voters would benefit from the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis provides incremental reassurance that they won\u2019t be inaccurately singled out and have to jump through even more hoops to vote,\u201d he said. \u201cIt stops the use of a deeply flawed process to cause trouble for real eligible citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, James Percival, the general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, which maintains the SAVE database, criticized the ruling as a misguided effort to block the Trump administration from trying to address voter fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how hard the Left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist,\u201d Percival said in a statement. <\/p>\n

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. <\/p>\n

Michael Morley, a professor at the Florida State University College of Law and faculty director of the FSU Election Law Center, said the ruling prevents the federal government from using all the information at its disposal to ensure that only eligible voters take part in elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to leave the government in a somewhat tenuous position of being able to provide citizenship data to states for voting purposes that is less accurate than it otherwise would be,\u201d he said. \u201cIt restricts the government\u2019s ability to take advantage of all of the most accurate sources of information it has in order, in most cases, to confirm people\u2019s citizenship status.\u201d <\/p>\n

Judge cites Texas\u2019 use of SAVE database in ruling<\/p>\n

Texas intervened as a defendant in the case since it had been actively using SAVE to verify the citizenship status<\/a> of its more than 18 million registered voters. The state gained access to the database in March 2025 after signing a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Homeland Security. <\/p>\n

In October, the Texas Secretary of State\u2019s Office announced SAVE had flagged 2,724 people as \u201cpotential noncitizens\u201d<\/a> and sent the list to county election officials to investigate. That process involved mailing letters to each person flagged, requesting additional information to verify their citizenship. If county officials received no response after 30 days, the person\u2019s registration was canceled. <\/p>\n

Some voters who responded to the notices turned out to be U.S. citizens after all; others had their registrations canceled, although a specific number hasn\u2019t been released. Hundreds of other registrants who were flagged had registered at the Texas Department of Public Safety, the agency that issues driver\u2019s licenses and state IDs. In Texas, proof of citizenship is required to obtain those documents. <\/p>\n

In the ruling, Sooknanan said the state\u2019s use of the database burdened and risked disenfranchising voters by incorrectly flagging naturalized citizens as noncitizens. The judge pointed to examples of voters in Texas who were U.S. citizens and had to provide proof of citizenship to keep their registration active and at least one U.S. citizen whose registration was revoked without their knowledge. <\/p>\n

Sooknanan also pointed to an amicus brief filed by Travis County voter registration officials as evidence that the use of the overhauled SAVE database was inaccurate. The state flagged 97 potential noncitizens<\/a> in Travis County. Voter registration officials found that about a quarter of those voters had registered at DPS and therefore had likely provided proof of citizenship. <\/p>\n

Travis County officials were later able to confirm<\/a> that at least 11 people who were flagged as potential noncitizens were in fact citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas threatened to revoke their voter registrations because of information obtained through the modified SAVE system; and they were required to confirm their citizenship to maintain their voter registrations,\u201d Sooknanan said. <\/p>\n

The secretary of state\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n

Celia Israel, the Travis County tax assessor-collector and voter registrar, said the ruling is \u201cvalidating.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have asked a lot of questions in the past several months about the SAVE database and about its accuracy,\u201d Israel said. \u201cThe lawsuit confirms that there are inaccuracies and that it is worthwhile for us officials at the county level to ask the state questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other civil rights groups and voters have also challenged Texas\u2019 use of the database<\/a> in a federal court in Austin. The lawsuit is still pending.<\/p>\n

Dion Nissenbaum is Votebeat\u2019s senior national reporter and is based in Houston. Contact Dion at dnissenbaum@votebeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Natalia Contreras is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@votebeat.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This coverage is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting access.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5182,145,288,27,29,28,2281,2279],"class_list":["post-346330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-attorney-generals-office","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-secretary-of-state","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}