Ohio and Texas Are Purging Voter Rolls With Broken Data Before the Midterms

Two states sued for illegal purges. More are coming.

In February 2026, the Campaign Legal Center sued Ohio over SB 293, a law that directs monthly voter purges using outdated citizenship data. In March 2026, voting rights groups sued Texas for purging voters based on the federal SAVE database without verifying citizenship status. Both lawsuits allege violations of the National Voter Registration Act.

The NVRA prohibits systematic voter roll purges within 90 days of a federal election. Ohio’s law orders purges monthly, including inside that protected window. Texas ran its SAVE check against 18 million registered voters and flagged 2,724 as potential noncitizens, but the data is stale and error-prone.

State-by-state breakdown

State	What happened	Legal status	Risk to voters
Ohio	SB 293 signed Dec 2025, monthly purges using citizenship data	Lawsuit filed Feb 2026 by CLC, ACLU, LWV	~300,000 naturalized citizens at risk
Texas	Secretary of State cross-referenced SAVE database	Lawsuit filed Mar 2026	2,724 flagged; naturalized citizens most affected
Georgia	DOJ suing Fulton County for voter records	Federal data collection underway	Unclear; DOJ collecting voter data ahead of 2026/2028
North Carolina	Inactive voter records removed	State officials say routine maintenance	Legitimate voters who skipped recent elections

The SAVE database problem

The federal SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) system was designed to verify immigration status for benefit applications, not voter registration. A 2025 Brennan Center report found it contains incomplete information and creates high risk of false matches.

The core flaw: SAVE records a person’s immigration status at a point in time. Someone who entered the country as a noncitizen and later naturalized may still appear as a noncitizen in the database. Texas used the SAVE system without any follow-up verification, meaning naturalized citizens were flagged based on years-old records.

“States are using a broken database to determine who gets to vote. This is voter suppression with a data veneer.”

That’s from the Campaign Legal Center’s analysis of pre-midterm purge efforts.

The legislative push behind purges

Across the country, 37 bills introduced in 2025 would either require passports or birth certificates to register or expand voter purges in ways likely to remove eligible voters. The Brennan Center documented the pattern: states are layering new purge mechanisms on top of existing list maintenance, creating multiple opportunities for eligible voters to be removed.

Democrats in Congress introduced legislation to halt mass purges, but it has no path in the current House.

How to protect your registration

Check your registration today. Visit vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote and confirm your name, address, and party affiliation are current. Do this every month until election day.
Set a calendar reminder for your state’s registration deadline. If you are purged, you need time to re-register. Most states require registration 15-30 days before an election.
Keep proof of citizenship accessible. If you are a naturalized citizen, keep your naturalization certificate or U.S. passport where you can access it quickly. You may need it to challenge a removal.
Report problems immediately. If you receive a notice that your registration has been canceled, contact the ACLU Voter Protection Hotline or your county election office. Do not wait.
Demand your representatives oppose purge legislation. Use Resist Bot to tell your state legislators that purges based on stale data disenfranchise citizens.
Vote in every election. Infrequent voters are the first targets for removal under “use it or lose it” purge laws. Eight states now purge voters based solely on infrequent voting.

Update, June 12, 2026: FBI agents raided the Cleveland office of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative on Thursday, seizing computers and phones from the grassroots voter registration group, according to The Guardian. Agents also traveled to the homes of people affiliated with the organization across the state. Board member Prentiss Haney said the raid appeared connected to fraud accusations tied to the 2024 election, though no specific charges were announced.

The raid follows a pattern of federal pressure on Ohio’s election infrastructure documented in earlier reporting. A top official in acting attorney general Todd Blanche’s office directed federal prosecutors to prioritize voter fraud cases roughly one month ago. Federal investigators have also collected voter records in at least six Ohio counties, as Reuters reported in April.

Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice, called the action “an egregious abuse of law enforcement for political ends.” Rep. Shontel Brown, whose district includes Cleveland, demanded the raids stop immediately. Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb called on the FBI to publicly disclose the legal basis for its actions before further steps are taken.

Update, June 18, 2026: Virginia’s Department of Elections missed a court-ordered June 1 deadline to correct its voter roll records for people whose felony convictions should not have triggered disenfranchisement under a ruling tied to the 1870 Readmission Acts. Rather than comply, the department sent a June 2 advisory to local election officials directing them to neither deny nor fully process affected applications, leaving registrations unresolved as early voting began.

Nolef Turns director Sheba Williams organized a press conference in Richmond on June 17 alongside the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy and Bridging the Gap Virginia to press for action from the state. Quadaire Patterson, 38, who was released in 2024 after spending roughly half his life incarcerated, told the Virginia Mercury he still cannot vote because his eligibility status remains unclear under the state’s unresolved process.

The voter registration deadline for Virginia’s congressional primaries is July 24, and the primaries are scheduled for Aug. 4. Attorney General Jay Jones’ office is still drafting the list of crimes that fall under the court’s ruling, according to the Virginia Mercury.