A Trump administration order that seeks to compile citizenship data for voting purposes has drawn sharp criticism from federal prosecutors, who say the resulting lists are too flawed for states to trust when updating their voter rolls.
During a court hearing on the presidential order, a Justice Department lawyer told the bench that no responsible state should use the information to manage voter registration. The warning underscores serious concerns about the accuracy and reliability of the citizenship records being assembled under the directive.
The order represents an attempt by the administration to gain greater control over election administration, a domain traditionally managed by individual states. By centralizing citizenship verification data, proponents have argued the effort could help identify ineligible voters and tighten ballot access.
But prosecutors countered that the methodology and verification standards behind the lists fall short of the rigor required for such consequential decisions. Voter registration systems depend on accurate data, and flawed information could lead to eligible citizens being wrongly purged from rolls or kept from voting altogether.
The dispute highlights the friction between federal and state power over elections. Election officials in several states have already expressed skepticism about whether the citizenship lists meet their own verification standards, raising questions about whether many jurisdictions will actually adopt them.
The case is likely to test the boundaries of presidential authority over voting procedures and federal oversight of state electoral processes. The court hearing marks an early legal moment in what could be a protracted battle over the administration's election control agenda.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Federal prosecutors don't lightly call out data as unreliable in open court, so this warning carries real weight for state election officials trying to figure out what they can safely use."
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