US Federal Judge Rules Trump Administration’s Voter Verification Database Violates Privacy Laws

A US federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully created a voter verification database that collected and shared the personal information of American citizens, finding that the system violated several federal privacy and administrative laws.

The case concerned changes made to the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database following Executive Order 14248 issued by President Donald Trump. The administration modified the system to allow state and local election officials to check the citizenship or immigration status of individuals

registering to vote.

The lawsuit was brought by the League of Women Voters and several nonprofit organizations, which argued that the system wrongly identified some eligible US citizens as non-citizens. According to the plaintiffs, these errors could lead to lawful voters being denied or restricted from exercising their voting rights.

Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favour of the challengers. The court found that the government improperly disclosed personal information from Social Security records, failed to implement required privacy protections, and did not follow mandatory public notice and comment procedures before introducing the system.

The judge further held that the administration violated the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act while creating and operating the modified SAVE database.

As a result, the court declared the voter verification system unlawful. The ruling represents a significant setback for the administration’s election integrity measures. However, the federal government still has the option to appeal the decision in a higher court.