Four GOP-Led States Seek SAVE Access for 67 Million Voter Checks After Judge's Block
Updated
Updated · Democracy Docket · Jul 1
Four GOP-Led States Seek SAVE Access for 67 Million Voter Checks After Judge's Block
1 articles · Updated · Democracy Docket · Jul 1
Summary
Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Iowa asked a federal judge in Pensacola to restore their access to DHS's SAVE database after another judge barred the program's expanded use last week.
The states say DHS must honor a settlement reached after their 2024 lawsuit, which gave them bulk-search access using Social Security numbers to screen voter rolls for noncitizens.
Judge T. Kent Wetherell II ordered DHS to respond by Thursday; if he grants the emergency motion, it would carve out an exception to Judge Sparkle Sooknanan's injunction, which DHS is already appealing.
Sooknanan ruled the SAVE overhaul ordered by Trump in March 2025 violated privacy and administrative law, despite having been used to check more than 67 million registered voters.
That expanded screening flagged thousands of possible noncitizens, but later reviews found many were actually eligible U.S. citizens, sharpening the clash between election enforcement and voter-privacy protections.