Texas’ latest voter roll purge is heading straight to federal court, with LULAC and several voting-rights allies accusing state officials of leaning on a flawed federal database in a way that unfairly targets naturalized citizens.
The coalition filed suit Thursday to stop what it calls a discriminatory cleanup of voter rolls. The complaint says Texas used a revamped version of the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE system to flag supposed noncitizens, then pressured counties to kick voters off the rolls if they did not quickly prove their citizenship. Plaintiffs argue the strategy hits naturalized citizens hardest and violates federal rules that require uniform, non-discriminatory list maintenance.
What the Complaint Says
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, and names Secretary of State Jane Nelson along with election officials in Brazoria, Collin, Dallas and Denton counties as defendants, according to the Campaign Legal Center. The plaintiffs are the League of United Latin American Citizens, Texas LULAC, LULAC Council 102 and Common Cause.
They are asking the court for declaratory and injunctive relief to halt removals tied to SAVE matches. The filing argues that Texas’ reliance on the database violates the National Voter Registration Act by creating a non-uniform, discriminatory system for maintaining the voter rolls.
Why SAVE Is Under Fire
An investigation by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica found that the SAVE tool has repeatedly misidentified U.S. citizens as noncitizens, documenting at least 87 voters flagged across 29 Texas counties. County clerks and registrars reported cases where Department of Public Safety records or passports clearly showed a person was a citizen, even though they had been tagged as potentially ineligible.
Local officials also described a scramble as the state pushed counties to use the system at scale with little warning. Voting experts quoted in the reporting warned that if states or counties act on SAVE matches without thorough verification, the resulting errors can lead to eligible voters being wrongly removed or blocked from casting a ballot.
Voices From Plaintiffs
“Every Texas voter deserves to cast a ballot without fear of being wrongly targeted or removed from the rolls,” Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, said in a joint statement with LULAC, according to the San Antonio Current. LULAC CEO Juan Proaño said Texas is relying on “stale and unreliable data” in a way that endangers voting rights.
The groups say the state’s approach effectively forces naturalized citizens into an extra hoop, requiring them to produce naturalization records that other registered voters are never asked to show.
Legal Stakes and Response
According to the filing, the plaintiffs want the court to block any further removals tied to SAVE and to formally declare the purge unlawful. Secretary of State Nelson declined interview requests, and a spokeswoman told The Texas Tribune that the office did not vet the voters flagged by SAVE before sending lists to counties because it “isn’t an investigative agency.”
Plaintiffs argue that offloading verification to individual counties, without clear, uniform procedures or direct access to DPS records, has created a patchwork system where a voter’s fate can depend on where they live, their place of birth and how many resources their local elections office has.
What This Could Mean for Voters
Election administrators in multiple Texas counties reported that in some jurisdictions a notable share of people flagged as possible noncitizens later turned out to be citizens once clerks checked DPS or passport records, according to ProPublica. Depending on how counties handled the notices, those voters may have been temporarily blocked from voting or removed from the rolls altogether.
The plaintiffs say that burden will likely fall hardest on immigrant communities and could fuel broader distrust in how elections are run in Texas.
Next Steps
The case is still in its early stages. Plaintiffs have requested injunctive and declaratory relief, and the court has not yet set a hearing date. If judges grant an injunction, Texas’ use of SAVE to flag and remove voters would be paused while the lawsuit moves forward, a decision that could influence how other states deploy the same system.
Hoodline will track new court filings and county election office responses as the case develops.
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