Trump’s government expanded the database and included information from the Social Security Administration, among other things.Image: keystone
June 23, 2026, 02:23June 23, 2026, 02:23
A federal judge has banned the administration of US President Donald Trump from using a central database to check voter lists. The government violated privacy laws when it pooled personal data from millions of Americans to allow states to exercise greater control over the citizenship of voters, the judge ruled.
The focus is on the so-called “SAVE” system, which was originally used to check immigration and citizenship status for government services. Trump’s government expanded the database and included information from the Social Security Administration, among other things. States should be able to check voter lists for possible non-citizens.
In her ruling, the judge accused the government of hastily introducing an error-prone system. Authorities knew that the database could falsely label legitimate voters as non-citizens. Naturalized Americans whose data in the systems are incomplete or out of date could be particularly affected.
The judge wrote that the federal government had “knowingly trampled on” the data protection rights of American citizens and thereby endangered the right to vote. According to them, individual states are already using the system to check voter registrations. US citizens who were already eligible to vote were incorrectly classified as non-citizens and some were removed from voter lists.
Part of a larger election law dispute
The important midterm elections in Congress are coming up in the USA at the beginning of November, in which Trump’s Republicans want to defend their wafer-thin majority in both chambers.
The US court’s decision is a defeat for Trump’s efforts to expand federal control over elections. The president has long pushed for stricter proof of citizenship, citing alleged voter fraud by non-citizens. However, this only happens very rarely – voting by foreigners is a punishable offense.
Last year, Trump issued a decree ordering greater verification of voters’ citizenship. He also supports legislation that would require proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. Critics see this as an attempt to make it more difficult to participate in elections and to limit the powers of the states.
The lawsuit was filed by voting rights and privacy organizations. The Department of Homeland Security sharply criticized the decision and announced resistance to the ruling. (sda/dpa)