The data sharing plan
The Department of Justice acknowledged in a federal court hearing in Rhode Island on Thursday that it plans to share voter registration data obtained from states with the Department of Homeland Security. That agency will run the data through SAVE, a DHS citizenship lookup tool that uses names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers to verify citizenship status. The disclosure came during litigation where the DOJ is suing more than two dozen states that have refused to turn over their voter rolls. A California federal judge previously called the government's request "unprecedented and illegal."
Last year, the Trump administration overhauled a DHS data system known as SAVE into a controversial citizenship lookup tool. Federal officials have been urging states to run their entire voter rolls through the system to identify potential noncitizens on their voting lists. Texas and Louisiana have complied and found very small numbers of potential noncitizens, matching results from their own state-level reviews. However, some U.S. citizens have also been inaccurately flagged by SAVE, raising concerns among voting rights advocates.
The legal and privacy concerns
Dan Lenz, senior legal counsel for strategic litigation at the Campaign Legal Center, a voting rights group, said the DOJ's revelation "seems to confirm what CLC and others have argued in courts across the country – that the federal government's efforts to obtain voter rolls is part of a larger project to supplant the states' constitutional authority to administer elections and maintain voter rolls." He added that the concession "continues to raise serious concerns about whether the administration is complying with the Privacy Act and other data protections."
For months, state officials and voting rights advocates questioned whether the DOJ's push for voter roll data was intended for sharing with DHS. In November, ten Democratic secretaries of state called on the heads of both agencies to clarify what they called "contradictory" statements about the subject. The Justice Department has not yet made any public announcements about a formal data sharing agreement with DHS or provided an opportunity for public comment, which is required under the Privacy Act before sensitive data can be shared between agencies.
Federal judges in California, Oregon, and Michigan have dismissed the DOJ's lawsuits against those states. The Rhode Island secretary of state's office confirmed the court disclosure but declined further comment. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the data sharing plan.
