Judge orders voter database access to GOP states despite conflicting ruling

A federal judge in Florida ordered the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday to allow four Republican-led states to continue accessing an expanded federal voter verification database, creating a direct conflict with a recent ruling from a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that blocked states from using the same system.

In a ruling Tuesday, Judge T. Kent Wetherell II of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, an appointee of President Donald Trump, said Florida could continue implementing a 2025 settlement agreement with DHS that allows the state to use an expanded version of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program to verify voter eligibility.