On Friday, the Supreme Court let states use the Trump-backed SAVE system for individual voter citizenship checks. Whether the 90-day bar on mass removals applies to noncitizens the administration says were improperly registered to vote remains unresolved before the midterms.
Texas ran all 18 million voter registrations through SAVE last year; officials initially flagged 2,724 potential noncitizens and gave them 30 days to verify their citizenship or risk removal. Local reviews reduced the total, and Texas officials later said hundreds of those flagged were eligible Americans, asking counties to restore registrations if they had been removed.
SAVE has existed for decades to verify citizenship and immigration status for government-benefit applicants; the Trump administration revamped it last year and linked it to other federal records, including Social Security data. Experts say noncitizen voting in federal elections is illegal and exceedingly rare. Federal law bars mass voter removals within 90 days of an election, but the administration argues the restriction does not apply to improperly registered noncitizens; the Supreme Court is to decide the dispute next term, after the midterms.
