Judge finds a Trump data system to verify voters is unlawful : NPR

Key Points:

• A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration's overhaul of the SAVE system, which aggregates Americans' personal data to verify voter eligibility, is unlawful and cannot be used in its current form due to privacy violations and unreliable citizenship data.
• The SAVE system, originally designed to verify foreign-born individuals' eligibility for government benefits, was expanded last year to perform bulk checks on voter lists, linking to Social Security data and including American-born citizens, leading to mistaken flagging of some citizens as noncitizens.
• Over 60 million voter records were processed through the revamped SAVE system, with about 21,000 flagged as potential noncitizens, though research shows noncitizen voting is extremely rare; the ruling found the overhaul violated the Privacy, Social Security, and Administrative Procedure acts.
• The ruling is seen as a victory by voting rights advocates who argue the expanded SAVE tool threatened fundamental voting rights and facilitated potential voter purges, while the Department of Homeland Security indicated plans to appeal the decision.
• The SAVE system's misuse has led to wrongful removal of legitimate voters, as in the case of Anthony Nel, a naturalized citizen flagged as a potential noncitizen, highlighting the risks of relying on flawed data for voter eligibility verification.