Texas officials have turned over the state’s voter roll to the U.S. Justice Department, according to a spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, complying with the Trump administration’s demands for access to data on millions of voters across the country.
The Justice Department last fall began asking all 50 states for their voter rolls — massive lists containing significant identifying information on every registered voter in each state — and other election-related data. The Justice Department has said the effort is central to its mission of enforcing election law requiring states to regularly maintain voter lists by searching for and removing ineligible voters.
Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, told Votebeat and The Texas Tribune that the state had sent its voter roll, which includes information on the approximately 18.4 million voters registered in Texas, to the Justice Department on Dec. 23.
Right now it will be used to cull “illegals.”
Later it will be used to cull the “politically unreliable.”
The definition of “illegals” will expand to more and more groups.
Ding ding ding.
The Trump regime has already floated the idea of suspending citizenship, and has already told those that don’t agree with them to ‘leave’.
Does that mean I don’t have to pay to renounce my citizenship?
the problem is where will they send you, and how will you be able to live in a country while not on a visa, because the country couldve easily deport you back.
Republican Party right now: “they’re the same picture!”
OK that’s bad, but they can do so much more with such data. Like, make sure they “win” the election.
Is that legal, that the federal government can demand this from states?
Honestly voter registration (with party affiliation) just feels illegal to me.
Texas doesn’t have party affiliation in voter registration.
No, but they do track which primary we choose to vote in, which locks you in for any runoffs and serves as a defacto party registration until the next primary.
It does give historical context that “they” use in the “likely <party>” polling forecasts, but the affiliation itself expires at the end of the calendar year of the primary. Not saying that the data can’t be used maliciously, but it’s legally different then what people mean when they talk about their voter registration having that information. States that have that on your voter registration are also likely to have closed primaries, which Texas does not.