States Granted Full Control Over Voter Data After Surrendering It
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Friday that state election officials may exercise complete local control over voter data, provided they immediately hand it to Washington or prepare to sample the freedom available inside the local prison system. Noem said states resisting the federal SAVE database could face funding cuts, investigations, fines and criminal referrals, reaffirming the administration’s commitment to states’ rights whenever states make the correct decision.
The warning followed President Donald Trump’s renewed claims about noncitizen voting and stolen elections, allegations supported by the nation’s most rigorous evidentiary standard: the president repeating them. Administration officials said public confidence in elections would be restored by having federal agencies threaten the officials who administer elections until everyone feels reassured. “Nobody respects local election officials more than me, and that is why some may need to go to prison until they freely choose to cooperate,” Trump said, outlining the traditional democratic process of voluntary compliance under threat of incarceration. Constitutional conservatives welcomed the arrangement as a triumph of federalism, the principle that states are sovereign laboratories of democracy until one of the laboratories returns an inconvenient result.
Noem also proposed withholding federal money from uncooperative states, demonstrating the administration’s devotion to small government through the disciplined use of enormous government leverage. California Gov. Gavin Newsom objected, apparently believing election officials should follow enacted laws rather than presidential intuitions. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes likewise said his office would comply with Arizona law, a position federal officials classified as suspiciously procedural. The administration maintained that centralizing sensitive voter records would protect privacy, much as collecting every homeowner’s spare key would strengthen property rights. Officials emphasized that election workers have nothing to fear unless they refuse, hesitate, request legal authority or display an unusual familiarity with the Constitution. State election systems are now fully independent because Washington has ordered them to obey.
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