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What happened?
Voting rights groups are suing the Texas Secretary of State’s Office and some county election officials to prevent the removal of voters from the state’s voter roll based on use of a federal database to verify citizenship. They also claim the state failed to crosscheck its own records for proof of citizenship it already possessed before seeking to remove voters.
What’s the dispute?
Last fall, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office announced it had used a federal database newly overhauled by the Trump administration — a tool from the Department of Homeland Security previously used for years to verify the immigration status of individuals seeking benefits— to verify the citizenship of more than 18 million Texans on the state’s voter roll. The office said at the time it had identified 2,724 “potential noncitizens,” and had directed counties to investigate.
Votebeat subsequently exclusively reported that some voters included in that figure may have already provided proof of citizenship to the state while obtaining a driver’s license or state ID at the Texas Department of Public Safety. At least one county later confirmed that some of the flagged voters there had done so.
In the lawsuit, filed in a federal district court in Austin Thursday, the plaintiffs said the database, known as SAVE, is unreliable, and that Texas’ use of it to remove people from the rolls, including some who are naturalized U.S. citizens, is a violation of the National Voter Registration Act.
The plaintiffs said in the filing, which cited reporting by Votebeat and other news outlets, that the Secretary of State’s Office “did not consult Department of Public Safety data—a known source that could confirm citizenship for many registered voters—before placing the burden on the voter to provide documentary proof.”
Who are the plaintiffs?
The nonprofit watchdog Campaign Legal Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of multiple voting rights and advocacy organizations, including the League of Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Texas LULAC, LULAC Council 102, and nonpartisan advocacy group Common Cause and its members.
What are the plaintiffs asking for?
The plaintiffs want the court to declare that the state’s removal of voters from the rolls using the SAVE database violates the National Voter Registration Act, and want the court to prohibit the Texas Secretary of State’s Office from sending lists of potential noncitizens to the counties without “further, uniform investigation,” the lawsuit says.
They also asked the court to prohibit the state and county election officials from removing people from the voter roll “solely because they have been flagged as noncitizens by the SAVE system” and t order that anyone who was removed be placed back on the voter roll until “it can be conclusively proved that such voters are not currently U.S. citizens”.
What happens now?
The state and county defendants have yet to file a response to the complaint. The Texas Secretary of State’s Office declined to comment Friday. At least one other lawsuit filed in federal court challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s use of the SAVE database is also still pending.
Read more Votebeat coverage of the state’s use of the SAVE database:
Natalia Contreras is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. Contact Natalia at [email protected].
Disclosure: Common Cause has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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