The Trump administration has, for the first time ever, built a searchable national citizenship data system.
The tool, which is being rolled out in phases, is designed to be used by state and local election officials to give them an easier way to ensure only citizens are voting. But it was developed rapidly without a public process, and some of those officials are already worrying about what else it could be used for.
NPR is the first news organization to report the details of the new system.
For decades, voting officials have noted that there was no national citizenship list to compare their state lists to, so to verify citizenship for their voters, they either needed to ask people to provide a birth certificate or a passport — something that could disenfranchise millions — or use a complex patchwork of disparate data sources.
Of all the things you could’ve said, that’s what you chose to comment on? Don’t start looking silly now and start arguing semantics. You came at this strong. What happened? Losing confidence all of a sudden when called out?
Anyway, I’d love that for you!
I don’t know if you know, but generally speaking, an election is a vote held to choose who holds political power. And less commonly, it’s used in the general sense to make a generic choice. I chose one definition over the other deliberately to make a distinction about the purpose of votes on a referendum or ballot initiative that are less commonly said to have been “elected”. But you know, I won’t get mad if you “elect” cake for breakfast over scrambled eggs. You do you, boo.