The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted unanimously to prohibit the state's roughly 1,800 municipal clerks from using the federal SAVE database to verify voters' citizenship status, citing a state law restricting disclosure of voter registration data. Critics note the law includes an exemption for sharing data with law enforcement agencies. The decision follows a September Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump administration's expanded SAVE program to continue amid litigation. The move has drawn criticism from Republican state lawmakers and election-integrity advocates, while Democratic candidates for governor and secretary of state have backed expanding benefits, including driver's licenses, to noncitizens.
The dispute could carry weight ahead of November elections, given narrow past margins in statewide Democratic primaries and estimates of tens of thousands of noncitizens residing in Wisconsin.
