The Trump administration has, for the first time ever, built a searchable national citizenship data system.
The tool, which is being rolled out in phases, is designed to be used by state and local election officials to give them an easier way to ensure only citizens are voting. But it was developed rapidly without a public process, and some of those officials are already worrying about what else it could be used for.
NPR is the first news organization to report the details of the new system.
For decades, voting officials have noted that there was no national citizenship list to compare their state lists to, so to verify citizenship for their voters, they either needed to ask people to provide a birth certificate or a passport — something that could disenfranchise millions — or use a complex patchwork of disparate data sources.
Why this is unneeded
Citizenship is already required to vote in state and federal elections. Every state currently maintains its own voter rolls. These voter rolls are administered at the state level and how citizenship is proved occurs according to state laws.
Why this is bad
This database represents a breach of state autonomy to administer their elections.
Some localities do not require citizenship to vote. This database could disenfranchise voters in those localities.
This represents a huge target for hackers, and given that every municipality will have access to it, there are a lot of potential ways in which it could be compromised or manipulated. The federal government is rife with inaccurate information, and is often understaffed to address the issue. These issues can and will disenfranchise voters. States and municipalities are better equipped to handle their voter rolls.How this will be abused
This database will be used to both verify citizenship, and for election officials to upload who is registered to vote in a given electoral area. This will lead to its usage to disqualify people who are registered in multiple areas. If - 31 days before an election, someone uploads a list of conservative or liberal voters from a purple area such as Florida or Ohio to the rolls of another state using hacked credentials, then it’s very possible those people will be disqualified from voting and may not know until they try to cast their ballot - shifting the balance of the election.
With the Supreme Court recently discarding birthright citizenship without clarifying who qualifies for citizenship, a sufficiently malicious actor could ensnarl the electoral and legal system with arbitrary claims that people’s parents were not U.S. citizens.
Invariably, the data from this will be used to stalk hapless people — either by electoral workers, or by anyone, once it has been hacked.
And, speculatively - what happens if the scope of this morphs to a ‘voter eligibility’ database, where it tries to ascertain if someone is eligible to vote on additional criterion, such as criminal history? Will it be plagued with errors, such as not registering expunged records, or applying one state’s laws to another?look at which ones are voting democrats are voting independant, and target those areas for voter suppression, its simple as that.
Jokes on them. I cancelled my voter registration the day after the last election.
gop dominated states regularly purge democratic voters from the rolls anyways, its also the reason why people rarely get jury duty form the states that are regularly purged.
Person from outside the US here. Please explain me why this is a problem?
In the EU only citizens can vote in national elections, for local elections non-citizens can vote only if they are residents.
Also outside the US, and the “problem” is that people - pretty much exclusively democrat voters - want illegal immigrants to be able to vote, or at least don’t want their illegal votes to not be counted, because they overwhelmingly vote Democrat since the Democrats are the ones importing them and giving them freebies.
And I’m here to believe that my MAGA Latino relatives living in the US are the exception to the rule? 😂 What about my extended family? And their friends and families? And theirs in turn?
What the Democrats want is to run local elections for local issues, and have the people affected vote because it affects them directly. Or what, did you get confused as usual and are talking about the general elections?
So you’re admitting the democrats want illegals to vote in elections?
Democrats? 😂 Buddy, this is a bipartisan event. If the city counsel decides what to do with the initiatives, why are you blaming the Dems? That the democrats are fine with that speaks to compassion for small issues that betters lives.
I hope you realize this doesn’t mean electing officials.
You literally said “what democrats want” in your last paragraph of your last post you turnip, and said that they want illegals to vote in them.
Yeah, what lower case democrats (and by extension capital D Democrats allegedly) want and believe in as a core tenet is for the public to vote on small scale measures that affect them directly. Shocker, I know. But tell me, did you think they meant elections instead of these issues? Because you’re glossing over the scale of these initiatives quite conveniently.
Also, should my country stop taking young people’s votes? Imagine children voting to give an opinion for the local council to hear! I may just clutch my pearls thinking they’re electing officials.
You need to look up the definition of the word “election” mate.
Your post is blatant disinformation. Undocumented immigrants overwhelmingly vote not at all. Voting illegally in the US is difficult, and often prosecuted.
I live in the US. Most of the people I know are Democrat-aligned. None of them want undocumented immigrants to vote. None of them import undocumented immigrants.
None of them want undocumented immigrants to vote.
Doubt.
With everything he does the issue is the implementation. Deport criminal aliens? I’m all for it, but most of the deportees have no criminal record or they accuse them of crimes as if it’s the same thing as a conviction.
Part of Trump’s grand plan is to make federal elections span only a single day. So maybe you check your status the day before and everything is fine, but the day of voting a glitch in the system says it can’t verify your citizenship. That’s it! No votes for you this year!
Deport criminal aliens? I’m all for it, but most of the deportees have no criminal record or they accuse them of crimes as if it’s the same thing as a conviction.
Illegal immigration is a crime.
Actually it’s a civil offense akin to a parking ticket which is separate from criminal charges.
It’s a crime.
“Improper entry” through illegally crossing a border is a crime, but the majority of undocumented immigrants in the US don’t enter that way. “Unlawful presence” after a visa expires or is denied receives civil penalties rather than criminal, meaning they can’t lead to imprisonment but only fines or a court action like deportation.
but the majority of undocumented immigrants in the US don’t enter that way.
Doubt, especially given what we saw from 2021-early 2025.
You’re free to go look at the statistics easily found, I’m not gonna do your homework for you. Were you at the border?
What happens if someone is illegitimately removed from this database? How can you show whether it was a glitch, or deliberate? How do you know if the information they have about you is even right, or get it changed if you need to? Where’s the accountability?
See the UK Post Office accounting scandal, in which a persistent computer error went unfixed for decades and caused hundreds of post office employees to be fired and dragged through courts for corruption that never happened. A good chunk of them committed suicide. The government and the software company both knew about the bug causing the issue, too, but prosecutions continued. “If the computer says it, it must be right”, sort of danger.
What happens if someone is illegitimately removed from this database? How can you show whether it was a glitch, or deliberate? How do you know if the information they have about you is even right, or get it changed if you need to? Where’s the accountability?
Database logs and procedural logs is how you know.
If you move state etc you would update your details with the government, just like you already should be doing.
“illegitimately” is the key word there. I’m not interested in what you think happens if everything is working as intended, or your poor reading comprehension. F-, rewrite your answer and address the question or you’ll fail the class and be held back a grade.
“illegitimately” is the key word there. I’m not interested in what you think happens if everything is working as intended, or your poor reading comprehension
Oh the irony. Database and procedural logs are automatic and extensive, that’s why I mentioned them. No amount of “illegitimate” actions would sidestep them. Go back to school.
Logs, eh? You know those are just text files, right? And how do you plan to get access to them to prove any kind of mistake or malfeasance, exactly?
Well no, they’re not just text files lol.
You’re basically saying that everyone that can have anything to do with the database and systems around it are corrupt and working together. That’s a ridiculous conspiracy theory.
You’re basically saying that everyone that can have anything to do with the database and systems around it are corrupt and working together.
No, just the person in charge has to order it. People do what their bosses tell them. Rules and procedures don’t matter if the people in charge ignore them. And again, you’re not getting access to any of the data we’re talking about in the first place, because the government would have to grant that access, and you’re not a person as far as they’re concerned in this scenario. What organisations have you worked for that would just give out information to a person they can’t verify the identity of?
That’s a ridiculous conspiracy theory.
No, it’s happening now in the US. You seem woefully under-informed to be trying to comment on current affairs. Maybe stick to your own country until you’re up to speed.
