The state wants to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls, but challengers said it pulls in lawful voters, too, and that it is too close to the election, in violation of federal law.
But wasn’t citizenship checked when registering? This is the part that blows these anti-democratic lawsuits up as purely political and a way to hopefully remove enough people they think are going to vote Democrat. Otherwise what is to stop these people from re-registering on election day?
And I have seen tons of stories about the overworked poll workers needing to deal with these voter role challengers nonsense. They all say there are safe guards built into every layer of the system and this type of stuff does nothing but create more work for election officials and less secure/democratic elections.
Note that you must provide your Social Security number, if any, when applying to register to vote in Virginia. Therefore, if you do not provide your Social Security number, your application for voter registration will be denied. State and local voting officials will use your Social Security number as a unique identifier to insure that no person is registered in more than one place.
Again they already have checks in place and this is transparent tampering with voter rolls to help them in the election next week.
I’m not sure what you mean by this. An SSN is not proof of citizenship, for example if you have a green card then you are eligible for Social Security but not eligible to vote.
Social Security Numbers for Noncitizens
Generally, only noncitizens authorized to work in the United
States by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can
get an SSN.
Yes, but in getting a SSN the government already knows your citizenship status, and so when the voter registration workers check your information your SSN I would think would allow them to confirm your status (or lack of SSN as a red flag). Again the checks are in place already, this is just Republicans working around the rules to get them what they want. And sure people can reregister, but at least some of these people are going to be disenfranchised now and not see it as “worth the hassle”.
Edit -
Also the SSN thing matters because of this quote from the article as the basis of this.
The state’s plan flagged people for removal if they check a box on a Department of Motor Vehicles form declaring they are not a citizen or if they leave it blank.
From my link @ SSA above.
You don’t need an SSN to get a
driver’s license, …
So they are purposely using a form that means nothing to try and push their bad faith argument, and the Supreme Court just said “sure, why not!” instead of stopping them like the law and lower court said.
Voter registration in VA has required the voter’s SSN (if they have one) since 1971. It’s actually written into the VA Constitution!
Driver’s licenses have required the driver’s SSN (if they have one) since 1968
Citizenship is on drivers license applications because of the Real ID Act, passed by Congress in 2005
So I don’t think you can blame the current crop of MAGA idiots for collecting this information. I don’t even necessarily blame anyone for trying to combine the datasets.
However, doing so less than 90 days before an election is absolutely unacceptable.
But wasn’t citizenship checked when registering? This is the part that blows these anti-democratic lawsuits up as purely political and a way to hopefully remove enough people they think are going to vote Democrat. Otherwise what is to stop these people from re-registering on election day?
And I have seen tons of stories about the overworked poll workers needing to deal with these voter role challengers nonsense. They all say there are safe guards built into every layer of the system and this type of stuff does nothing but create more work for election officials and less secure/democratic elections.
To register in Virginia, you only need to fill out a form.
There is a box on the form to affirm your citizenship, but you do not need to present any documents that could be used to check your status.
Again they already have checks in place and this is transparent tampering with voter rolls to help them in the election next week.
I’m not sure what you mean by this. An SSN is not proof of citizenship, for example if you have a green card then you are eligible for Social Security but not eligible to vote.
Yes, but in getting a SSN the government already knows your citizenship status, and so when the voter registration workers check your information your SSN I would think would allow them to confirm your status (or lack of SSN as a red flag). Again the checks are in place already, this is just Republicans working around the rules to get them what they want. And sure people can reregister, but at least some of these people are going to be disenfranchised now and not see it as “worth the hassle”.
Edit - Also the SSN thing matters because of this quote from the article as the basis of this.
From my link @ SSA above.
So they are purposely using a form that means nothing to try and push their bad faith argument, and the Supreme Court just said “sure, why not!” instead of stopping them like the law and lower court said.
Just to be clear:
Voter registration in VA has required the voter’s SSN (if they have one) since 1971. It’s actually written into the VA Constitution!
Driver’s licenses have required the driver’s SSN (if they have one) since 1968
Citizenship is on drivers license applications because of the Real ID Act, passed by Congress in 2005
So I don’t think you can blame the current crop of MAGA idiots for collecting this information. I don’t even necessarily blame anyone for trying to combine the datasets.
However, doing so less than 90 days before an election is absolutely unacceptable.
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No, but it is identifying information. The government can use it to check information on you, which includes your citizenship status.