Washington judges split on voter citizenship database access | JQJO

Washington, United States – Federal courts in two different jurisdictions have issued conflicting rulings on whether states may use a federal immigration database to verify the citizenship status of registered voters ahead of the November 2026 U.S. midterm elections. The dispute centers on the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which government agencies have traditionally used to determine whether applicants for programs such as Medicaid, housing assistance and driver’s licenses are legally eligible based on their immigration or citizenship status. One federal judge has blocked states from using the database for voter verification, while another has issued an order that appears to permit or encourage such use, leaving election officials uncertain about how to proceed.

The legal fight is driven by an aggressive push from the Trump administration and several Republican-led states to cross‑reference state voter rolls with SAVE to identify and remove possible noncitizens from voter registration lists. Republican officials describe expanded access to the federal data as a common‑sense measure to protect the integrity of elections and ensure only eligible citizens cast ballots. Voting‑rights advocates and independent researchers counter that President Donald Trump’s repeated claims of widespread noncitizen voting are not supported by available evidence, citing numerous studies indicating that instances of noncitizen participation in U.S. elections are exceedingly rare and raising concerns about the appropriateness of using SAVE for election administration purposes.