From a bit on NPR this morning:
"DHS, in partnership with the White House's Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) team, has recently rolled out a series of upgrades to a network of federal databases to allow state and county election officials to quickly check the citizenship status of their entire voter lists — both U.S.-born and naturalized citizens — using data from the Social Security Administration as well as immigration databases.
Such integration has never existed before, and experts call it a sea change that inches the U.S. closer to having a roster of citizens — something the country has never embraced. A centralized national database of Americans' personal information has long been considered a third rail — especially to privacy advocates as well as political conservatives, who have traditionally opposed mass data consolidation by the federal government."
There are many kinds of privacy concerns here. Particularly given that this was done without public input and apparently without Congressional approval or even knowledge. Haven't Republicans and others on the right been the staunchest supporters of personal privacy? And given that anything and everything touched by DOGE is suspect (dodgy), there is trouble a brewing for you and me here.
A state election official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the development told NPR: "The question is, is the data usable? And [usable] in a way that I'm not going to jeopardize people who live in my jurisdiction?"
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