Secretaries of state press Congress for federal data access to clean voter rolls

WASHINGTON — Secretaries of state testifying before the House Subcommittee on Elections said federal help accessing citizenship and death records and funding for state systems is needed to keep voter rolls accurate and maintain public confidence.

At the hearing, Secretary of State Wes Allen of Alabama described the Alabama Voter Integrity Database, or AVID, and said his office has removed “more than half a million ineligible voters” since he took office. He told members that obtaining timely access to the Social Security Administration’s death data and noncitizen data from the Department of Homeland Security has been “absurdly time consuming and overly burdensome.” He urged Congress to “cut through that red tape.”

The nut of witnesses’ arguments was that better data and tools would let states quickly identify likely noncitizens and deceased registrants without resorting to ad hoc, error-prone processes. Secretary Phil McGrane of Idaho said his state used a patchwork of SAVE-related databases after issuing an executive order to verify citizenship, but added the SAVE resources are “not actually a program or a database” and recommended federal investment in purpose-built systems. Ohio Secretary Frank LaRose and Louisiana Secretary Nancy Landry also urged broader federal cooperation and data sharing to support state maintenance efforts.

“I think one of the things this committee can do is invest in the tools that we need as a state to ensure that our voter rolls are accurate,” McGrane said. LaRose told the committee that a presidential executive order on citizenship data was “a good first step” but that more access via DHS and USPS is required.

Ranking Member Terri Sewell pressed Alabama’s Allen on accuracy after earlier roll-cleaning actions. Allen said a previous removal of 3,251 records included cases that later proved to be citizens and, he provided a figure during questioning that 93.8% of those 3,251 purged records were actually U.S. citizens who should have remained eligible; Allen framed the work as ongoing and said his office would continue maintenance efforts.

Witnesses described different technical approaches: Alabama said it replaced participation in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) with its AVID system; Ohio described a standardized data-definition effort called the Data Act; Idaho and Louisiana described state-level comparisons with DMV and DHS records. Connecticut’s Secretary Stephanie Thomas highlighted regular list maintenance and audits as part of the state’s routine election administration.

Members and witnesses focused on precision and safeguards. Several secretaries emphasized the need for case-by-case adjudication before removing registrations and suggested that federal agencies should make relevant records more readily available for lawful, verified comparisons.

The witnesses also urged Congress to provide sustained funding for state election offices and for improved, centralized tools to reduce the manual burden on county and local election officials. No committee action or vote was taken at the hearing; members said follow-up and potential legislative fixes could be explored in subsequent hearings and oversight steps.

The hearing included detailed questioning from members about specific removals and legal safeguards; several members, including Sewell, warned against overbroad purges that could remove eligible voters.

Looking ahead, witnesses recommended targeted federal support: clearer access protocols to DHS/USCIS and SSA death records, and investments in databases and standardized reporting that states could use to maintain accurate rolls without removing eligible voters erroneously.