This story was originally published by the Louisiana Illuminator.
Louisiana lawmakers have advanced a bill to require that state election officials send personal information on all registered voters to the federal government for further scrutiny.
House Bill 691, sponsored by state Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, cleared the House of Representatives in a 74-29 vote Tuesday, mostly along party lines. Republicans, noting that the data sharing already began last year, supported the measure as being necessary for election integrity, while Democrats opposed it as an infringement on privacy, saying it might lead to unintentional voter purges due to outdated or inaccurate information.
Under the bill, the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office would be required to submit personal identifying information, including addresses, birthdates and Social Security numbers, for all registered voters in the state to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which will check the information against a federal database that is typically used to verify citizenship of people applying for government benefits. Homeland Security rolled out its Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database to state and local election officials last year.
“Does the cost justify the benefit, or do the ends justify the means? I find it ironic that we would protect one right and then on the other hand violate another.” ….. Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge
Beaullieu’s bill is distinct from a federal proposal titled the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, more commonly called the SAVE Act, which President Donald Trump has urged approval of as it remains stalled in Congress.
Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry, a Republican, voluntarily submitted voters’ names to the Department of Homeland Security last year and found nearly 400 non-citizen registered voters, with 79 voting in at least one election since 1980. The alleged illegal voters represent approximately 0.002% of Louisiana’s roughly 2.9 million registered voters.
Beaullieu’s bill would make the submissions an annual requirement for the secretary of state.
Debate on the House floor Tuesday centered on the privacy rights of registered voters who are legal citizens and the potential impacts of a database some worry could contain outdated or inaccurate information.
Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, took issue with the bill, saying the state shouldn’t be able to share a person’s Social Security number with a federal law enforcement agency without consent or probable cause. But Beaullieu said he doesn’t see any problems with that.
“I don’t see sharing Social Security numbers with the federal government, who issued you the Social Security number to begin with, is any issue,” Beallieu said. “And if anything, it’s to protect our election system which is extremely important to the foundation of our democracy.”
Jordan pointed out Louisiana’s elections have been well protected for decades without submitting voter information to Homeland Security.
“Does the cost justify the benefit, or do the ends justify the means?” Jordan said. “I find it ironic that we would protect one right and then on the other hand violate another.”
If Homeland Security identifies any potential non-citizens in its review of state data, the secretary of state would be required to launch a criminal investigation and then challenge the voter’s registration with the applicable local registrar of voters.
It’s already a crime under state and federal laws for noncitizens to vote or to submit false voter registration information.
Beallieu’s bill heads next to the Senate for consideration.
Current status of the bill. https://legis.la.gov/legis/BillInfo.aspx?i=250553
Wes Muller has been with the Illuminator since its founding and covers politics, energy, economics and environment. He traces his journalism roots back to age 13 when he built a hyper-local news website for his New Orleans neighborhood. Since then, he has freelanced for the Times-Picayune and worked on staff at WAFB/CBS, the Sun Herald and the Enterprise-Journal. He also taught English as an adjunct instructor at Baton Rouge Community College. Wes is a New Orleans native, Jesuit High School alumnus, University of New Orleans alumnus and a U.S. Army veteran and former paratrooper. He lives in Louisiana with his wife and kids.
Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
