this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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  • Widespread Errors: An expanded federal tool for identifying noncitizens on voter rolls is making persistent mistakes, particularly in assessing citizenship for people born outside the U.S.
  • Banned From Voting: In Missouri, state officials told local clerks to temporarily ban flagged voters from casting ballots, even though hundreds turned out to be citizens.
  • Texas Confusion: As errors emerged in SAVE data, local clerks said the state hadn’t provided them with clear guidance and worried about disenfranchising eligible citizens.
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[–] CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca 177 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It's a feature, not a bug.

[–] Virtvirt588@lemmy.world 67 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is how political cleansing begins. Once the system is turned on, voting for anything slightly left will cast you as a criminal of the state.

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 32 points 2 months ago

Certainly they won't use years of collected metadata from social networks about political sentiment, right? ...right?

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago

This has happened all over there US already. Someone challenges your right to vote and it's your job to prove your eligibility. Can't show up to your appointment? No ID? No bills going to that address? Only have a PO Box address? No voting for you!

[–] danekrae@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And still, americans believe the democrats will win... Even after everything in the past, everything being said in the present, they're still only going to protest.

[–] ruekk@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (4 children)

What do you want Americans to do? Start an open insurrection? Do you really realize how many thousand of people would die the instant a semi-armed civilian led force tried to fight back?

[–] Tehbaz@lemmy.wtf 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's a case of die standing up or on your knees in a 'big beautiful' concentration camp. A peaceful general strike and spending boycott would be a start, but nobody seems to be willing to make that sacrifice until it's too late.

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[–] KelvarCherry@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

I'm genuinely losing my mind at this take. For the last 13 months we've seen thousands of human people walked to their death -- watched planes of human beings take off and return empty; and still half of the comments I see that suggest taking action beyond peaceful marches and waiting for the 2026 midterms get this "smarter than thou" smug response from people, some claiming to be 50501 liberals. Sometimes it's, like, 15 lines and a song quote; with the occasional ALL CAPS "DO NOT TAKE THE BAIT".

People are dying, folks; now. Come to reality. A clash with ICE, especially in the first months when they were untrained and barely armed, wouldn't have accelerated anything--because we didn't have that and yet we are here. This mythical "Insurrection Act" invocation wouldn't have caused the terrorism we are witnessing now; nor the deployments in LA or Portland. Yes, people will die in clashes with the state; but what's the alternative? Letting people die in raids from the state? We watched camera footage with video of pro-Palestinian activists getting disappeared. We've seen masked agents killing hundreds of people across the states, every month. We've seen them raid neighborhoods, and pull people into vans. We've seen our police watch, do nothing, then arrest the bystanders for "causing a disturbance". Every. Day.

The part of me that is clinging onto some partial hope in human nature wants to blame this widespread passivity propaganda for the reason it took a year to have the resistance effort in Minneapolis, which there had been nothing like until that point. Really, though, I sense the real reason behind these arguments and the wider inaction, is that the targets of ICE have been predominantly people of color, and mainly Hispanic folks. So, too, were the kids in cages through the first Trump and Biden administrations.

I understand that Holocaust poem in a depth that I just didn't understand before. I understand the Holocaust documentaries and testimonies I've watched in a depth I hadn't gotten before.

You aren't outsmarting the Republicans by standing back as they kill thousands; tens-of-thousands; hundreds-of-thousands of people of color. You're giving them exactly what they wanted: A “second American Revolution”; [white]-bloodless “if the left allows it to be.”

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If you think things are already as bad as they can get, then you lack perspective.

There's still a chance of electoral victory. Progressives across the country are having punishing victories. Don't throw away that momentum by being too trigger-happy. People are waking up, don't put them back to sleep.

If the republicans rig or steal the election (which they certainly intend to, but it's not yet certain how successful they'll be), then all gloves are off and the third and fifth sentences of the Declaration of Independence kicks in.

Until that point, the fourth sentence still applies.

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[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How many people have you gone out and killed? It sure sounds like you are imploring people to take to the streets and violently attack the government. What have you done in support of this goal?

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[–] ruekk@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You aren't outsmarting the Republicans by standing back as they kill thousands; tens-of-thousands; hundreds-of-thousands of people of color. You're giving them exactly what they wanted: A “second American Revolution”; [white]-bloodless “if the left allows it to be.”

Nor would blindly killing the Repubs/Nazis. All it will do is start a massive killing frenzy. A killing frenzy the government wants and is trying to provoke

[–] KelvarCherry@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

As I said in my comment, the killing frenzy is here. This government has become more emboldened than ever in oppressing and brutalizing us citizens because they've been taking slow steps toward fascism for decades. The War on Drugs; Bush v. Gore; The Patriot Act; the reporters of Ferguson; Trump's first term executive order overreach; the fucking Insurrection—This year: DOGE; ICE; CECOT; Tariff War; Plus we're just now seeing everything in the Epstein files which was happening as well for decades.

Decades of peaceful protesting and it hasn't worked. We've only been losing ground. 2015's gay marriage decision was a fluke; and the Affordable Care Act was more of a duct-tape fix than true reform.

We've had two real assassinations in the USA: Brian Thompson in December 2024, and Charlie Kirk in September 2025. Do you think the government wanted either of those? Judging from the bipartisan condemnation, absolutely not. Folks like me are not saying to mow down a red state neighborhood. We're saying to resist the ICE deployments, physically, when they show up.

You're right that the US government wants a killing frenzy. It's the one they are enacting, every day of the majority of this term. Even if Republicans' intent in disappearing these tens-of-thousands, maybe hundreds-of-thousands of people is to bait a reaction from people, what is the alternative? We... let tens of thousands of human beings get disappeared? The dehumanization of these victims is sickening and yet it continues to be perpetuated by "holier than thou" liberals who either don't realize what they're suggesting, or don't care.

So, let's say no one does anything in retaliation. Why wouldn't they just make shit up? Well.. the answer is, they have. We've got Stephen Miller on FOX ranting about how blue cities were littered with "body after body after body" under Biden; talking about how Portland would burn to the ground every night. It's all lies. They lie. We know they lie. Their biggest ally, big tech, spent billions of dollars over the last several years making machines that fake evidence and gaslight people. The White house has used AI-generated images and videos to humiliate activists and produce propaganda.

IF we ever claw back our nation from fascism, and that is a big IF, scholars will ask why no one did anything—how this could happen with the open internet, a tool believed to be able to mitigate and prevent the rise of fascism. This constant fearmongering about the "Insurrection Act" and insistence to not react is a significant part of that answer, and I will preach that to the grave.

[–] maturelemontree@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I think many people are aware of this, but what do you DO. There are laws and expectations of civilized society. On both sides. You become the first person to raise some form of resistance I highly doubt the majority will welcome you with open arms. No, likely you will be seen by everyone as a cult leader, an anarchist, or at best, someone who snapped and refused to follow the rules of society.

The real people who need to take action are elected officials. Mayors and governors need to stand up and say "my people will not be used for this, and you cannot force us." The fact that yhese events that you are very aware of were able to happen were entirely due to the lack of responsible leadership, not that some people didnt grab their handgun and form a resistance group of 20 people to fight a fully armed surveillance police state.

I agree with you, its awful, I dont want to sit back and let things happen but what, realistically in modern society, do you do.

[–] KelvarCherry@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Understanding that we don't have that elected leadership, do we just let people die en-masse? If our mayors and governors stood up and said they refuse to comply with federal orders, then what? The national guard was federalized in LA, and we saw troops shoot reporters and peaceful citizens in LA and Minneapolis.

Obviously there are no easy answers here. That ship sailed when Donald Trump won re-election. If your answer is "we sit back and wait for something to save us" then that's your answer. Seeing the ongoing mass-murder by ICE, border patrol, and the rest of the bipartisan-founded Republican-led terrorists; that answer doesn't sit right with me.

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[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

People want them to do literally anything at all

The perception is you're taking it lying down

[–] qaeta@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

Fewer than will if they continue to do nothing.

[–] infinitevalence@discuss.online 54 points 2 months ago (1 children)

thats the whole point, oops, you cant vote, sucks you were voting against us anyway....

[–] VivianRixia@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago

But also, oops, you cant vote, sucks that you were going to vote for us anyway

[–] Armand1@lemmy.world 47 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Given that only 22 noncitizens over the course of like 10 years (can't remember the exact statistic) tried to vote, the way to get the best accuracy would be to just hard code the answer to "yes, they can vote". Then you get over 99.99% accuracy.

[–] pageflight@piefed.social 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

From the article:

At least seven states with a total of about 35 million registered voters have publicly reported the results of running their voter rolls through the system. Those searches have identified roughly 4,200 people — about 0.01% of registered voters — as noncitizens. This aligns with previous findings that noncitizens rarely register to vote.

[–] asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'm not even sure what incentive they would have. We already have a huge problem with citizens not voting because they think their vote won't change anything. Is anyone going to think "I'm going to risk going to federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison for me to spend my free time filling out a ballot box which will have a 0.000001% chance of having any effect"?

[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 42 points 2 months ago

As designed.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 33 points 2 months ago

'Accident'. 🙄

[–] starblursd@lemmy.zip 28 points 2 months ago

"mistakenly" flags democrat registered voters? I can only assume

"It's only rigged when we lose" - maga

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Extra mistakes in blue states I’m sure.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

In large minority districts of entrenched Republican enclaves

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Turns out, they were just using this meme as their requirements document.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago

You know how satire works, right? It's based on existing reality.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 21 points 2 months ago

"Mistakenly"

[–] Emi@ani.social 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

As European I'm so confused by this. You just show your state ID and that's it, they check on paper that you voted, then you put your voting papers into the box.

[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They just made it so not all state IDs count.

[–] Th3D3k0y@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

All animals are equal, some are more equal

[–] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

You’re are rightly confused. This is all theatrics by the far right to penalize liberal areas. Areas they deem as high risk of fraud or illegals, in other words left leaning states and counties.

[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 2 months ago

That was always the plan

[–] TwodogsFighting@lemdro.id 14 points 2 months ago

"Mistakes".

Cue Ron Howard voiceover.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

Voting Blue? No Vote For You!

[–] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

Seems like it’s working as they intended then.

[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 9 points 2 months ago

The source of the bad data was a Department of Homeland Security tool called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE.

Once used mostly to check immigrants’ eligibility for public benefits, SAVE has undergone a dramatic expansion over the last year at the behest of President Donald Trump, who has long falsely claimed that millions of noncitizens lurk on state voter rolls, tainting American elections.

Why is the Department of Homeland Security in charge of a program to check if people can get benefits?

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Repeatedly checking the tool results in massive numbers of mistakes.

If you check the same person twice, the odds of a false positive increase exponentially.

[–] Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

So if it says I can't vote because I'm not a us citizen and my state bans me from voting for it, am I off the hook on taxes?

No taxation without representation, right?

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Logically yes, but these are not logical times.

[–] darthsundhaft@piefed.social 6 points 2 months ago

They're probably using AI...

[–] LibertyLizard@quokk.au 6 points 2 months ago

It's almost like there's almost zero non-citizens voting or something...

Not that there's even a need to prevent them from voting.

[–] Rhoeri@piefed.social 5 points 2 months ago

As it was intended to do.

[–] LemmyBruceLeeMarvin@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 months ago

"mistakenly"

[–] codapine@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 months ago

Task failed successfully.

[–] rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

That's ok, so does the government

[–] amateurcrastinator@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Isn't that the point? Ensure there aren't that many voters? I'd say it works as I tended.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 1 points 2 months ago

When it's not working, it's working.

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