Judge blocks Trump administration’s use of revamped immigration database to check voter rolls

The judge said using the database risked disenfranchising eligible voters.

A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from using a revamped version of an immigration database for checking the accuracy of state voter rolls, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to boost the role of the federal government in elections ahead of the midterm elections in November.

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Last year, the Department of Homeland Security revamped a system it uses to verify individuals’ citizenship and immigration status to make it easier for state and local officials to use it to make sure voters were U.S. citizens.

In a 75-page decision on Monday, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C., sided with voting rights and privacy advocates who argued that the overhaul of the system, known as SAVE, made it less accurate and risked disenfranchising eligible voters.