This week at Democracy Docket: Trump’s voter roll scheme hits a major roadblock, and ICE’s role in voting crackdown revealed

Key Points:

• A federal judge ruled that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has no right to obtain state voter roll data and barred the DOJ from using data already received from 18 states, potentially disrupting the administration’s plan to purge voters identified as noncitizens.
• The ruling allows states to continue using the SAVE database for voter verification, but complicates the federal government’s effort to create a national citizenship list and identify voters for removal.
• Documents reveal that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been heavily involved in investigating noncitizen voters, including collecting tens of millions of voter records, probing voter registration groups, and considering deportations, while resisting transparency about its activities.
• The DOJ plans to deploy an unprecedented number of monitors at polling sites this fall, with reports indicating these monitors include criminal prosecutors and FBI agents, suggesting an emphasis on restricting voter access rather than protecting voting rights.
• Across multiple states, Republicans are pursuing legal and administrative efforts to impose stricter voting restrictions, including banning student IDs for voting in New Hampshire, tightening mail ballot rules in North Carolina, challenging ballot delivery methods in Georgia, and limiting provisional ballots in Wisconsin, all of which may reduce voter access ahead of the election.