Congresswoman Nikema Williams Leads Opposition to DHS Use of Private Data to Purge Voter Rolls

WASHINGTON D.C. – Congresswoman Nikema Williams (GA-05) led a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Chief Privacy Officer, Roman Jankowski, concerning the decision by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to overhaul the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to expand the use and scope of a previously targeted database serving a limited purpose into a massive inter-governmental data system. In the process, DHS has incorporated unreliable data into the SAVE system without legal authority and without considering the risks of harm to the privacy and voting rights of the American people, and has recklessly authorized the use of this database to determine voter eligibility. Representatives Paul D. Tonko (NY-20), Lloyd Doggett (TX-37), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C. at Large), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Danny K. Davis (IL-07), André Carson (IN-07), Marc A. Veasey (TX-33), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), & Betty McCollum (MN-04) joined the letter.

DHS’s overhaul of the SAVE system is a direct assault on everything the Privacy Act stands for and an affront to the power of Congress. For that reason alone, DHS should scrap this rushed change and follow the proper procedures for revisiting the scope and use of SAVE.  

The members wrote:

“Because DHS has prematurely implemented these changes, we already have evidence that these fears are well-founded. Some Texas counties are sending out SAVE non-citizenship notices  that require registered voters identified by SAVE as potential non-citizens to provide documentary proof of citizenship to remain registered—one county that examined its list of voters before sending out such notices found that about a quarter of the people listed had already provided proof of citizenship when they registered.  Bureaucratic missteps like these are an unnecessary burden on the right to vote and needlessly risk disenfranchising otherwise eligible voters.”

“Like any massive database, the information from the overhauled SAVE system will almost certainly include errors and other inaccurate information. If access to this database is provided to states, localities, and tribal and territorial governments for the purpose of “verification of registrants and registered voters in voter registration and voter list maintenance processes,” as contemplated, Americans could be inaccurately removed from the voter rolls and denied their right to vote through no fault of their own.”

“The massive expansion of the SAVE system for the purpose of voter eligibility determination is dangerous and unreliable. We call on DHS to immediately reject this proposal to modify the SAVE system and to only operate the system within the confines of DHS’s legal authority.”

Read the full letter here.