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.

  • FreedomAdvocate
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    6 hours ago

    What happens if someone is illegitimately removed from this database? How can you show whether it was a glitch, or deliberate? How do you know if the information they have about you is even right, or get it changed if you need to? Where’s the accountability?

    Database logs and procedural logs is how you know.

    If you move state etc you would update your details with the government, just like you already should be doing.

    • voracitude@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      “illegitimately” is the key word there. I’m not interested in what you think happens if everything is working as intended, or your poor reading comprehension. F-, rewrite your answer and address the question or you’ll fail the class and be held back a grade.