Latest news with #BureauofMotorVehicles
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Indiana to check voter rolls for noncitizens with revamped federal system
Indiana will soon be scanning voter rolls for noncitizens after receiving access to a revamped federal system, Secretary of State Diego Morales announced on July 7. The move comes after Morales and Attorney General Todd Rokita asked U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for help in verifying the citizenship of 600,000 voters less than a month before the 2024 general election. Voting rights advocates denounced the announcement at the time, fearing it would disenfranchise eligible voters who don't have easy access to the documents required to prove citizenship. The agency, operating under President Joe Biden's administration at the time, never granted the request. The information now available to Indiana is called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, data system, which was overhauled with help from the Department of Government Efficiency beginning in April to eliminate fees and allow for easier mass checks. 'As someone who knows firsthand what it means to earn U.S. citizenship, I deeply value the rights and responsibilities that come with citizenship — especially the right to vote. This agreement is another step in safeguarding the rights of every eligible Hoosier voter and reflects our commitment to protecting the integrity of our elections,' said Morales, who is a naturalized citizen from Guatemala, in a news release. Voters who are flagged by the system and cannot have their citizenship verified by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles will be notified via mail and given 30 days to provide proof of citizenship, according to House Enrolled Act 1264. Some citizens may receive such notification, as those who registered to vote before 2005 did not have to provide their Social Security number or state-issued ID. The 2024 law defines proof of citizenship as a birth certificate, passport, naturalization document or naturalization number. Legible photocopies are also acceptable. If the individual is unable to provide documentation, they can appeal to the county election board. The board's decision will be forwarded to the county voter registration office, which will ensure records reflect the verdict. It's unclear how the revamped data system and its partnerships with states will impact federal immigration enforcement efforts. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not respond to IndyStar's request for comment by publication, including whether it will use the new collaboration to detain, deport or investigate undocumented immigrants. The lack of information has generated some concern, including from a state election official who told National Public Radio (NPR) they worried the information would be used to aid President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign. When asked if the efforts would be used to facilitate immigration enforcement or criminal prosecution, a spokesperson for the Indiana Secretary of State's office said local election officials should forward evidence of noncitizen voting to law enforcement. Julia Vaughn of Common Cause Indiana, an advocacy group that focuses on voting rights and government transparency, said SAVE was never intended for verifying voter eligibility; instead, it's historically been used to determine whether someone can receive government benefits by checking their immigration status. Data contained within SAVE is sometimes out-of-date and inaccurate, she said, presenting a real possibility that citizens will be mistaken as noncitizens. She pointed to a similar program from Kansas called Crosscheck, which compares voter registration data with lists from participating states and looks for matches that prove someone is registered twice. But a 2017 study found 99.5% of voters with name and date of birth matches within the Crosscheck system were in fact two separate individuals, creating the risk that someone could be falsely identified as an ineligible voter. The system led to a class action lawsuit that alleged the program exposed sensitive personal information of voters suspected to be ineligible. One of the plaintiffs, for example, had parts of his Social Security number shared over unencrypted emails with the state of Florida because a man who lived there shared the same name as the plaintiff. While the Indiana process allows potentially misidentified voters to prove their citizenship, merely missing a piece of mail could cost someone to lose their opportunity to vote. Vaughn said she fears people who are cleared from the voter rolls may only find out when they go to the polls. The risk is not worth it to Vaughn, who called the concept of noncitizen voters a 'popular misperception.' There is little evidence to support widespread voting by noncitizens. An audit in Georgia found a little more than 1,600 potential noncitizens attempted to register to vote from 1997 to Feb. 2022, but none were successful. 'It's a continuation of misguided public policy based on myths,' Vaughn said, 'and really doesn't address the very real election issues that we have here in Indiana, which is evidenced by our very low voter turnout.' Contact Marissa Meador at mmeador@ or find her on X at @marissa_meador. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana to remove noncitizens from voter rolls by using federal data
Indianapolis Star
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
Indiana to check voter rolls for noncitizens with revamped federal system
Indiana will soon be scanning voter rolls for noncitizens after receiving access to a revamped federal system, Secretary of State Diego Morales announced on July 7. The move comes after Morales and Attorney General Todd Rokita asked U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for help in verifying the citizenship of 600,000 voters less than a month before the 2024 general election. Voting rights advocates denounced the announcement at the time, fearing it would disenfranchise eligible voters who don't have easy access to the documents required to prove citizenship. The agency, operating under President Joe Biden's administration at the time, never granted the request. The information now available to Indiana is called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, data system, which was overhauled with help from the Department of Government Efficiency beginning in April to eliminate fees and allow for easier mass checks. 'As someone who knows firsthand what it means to earn U.S. citizenship, I deeply value the rights and responsibilities that come with citizenship — especially the right to vote. This agreement is another step in safeguarding the rights of every eligible Hoosier voter and reflects our commitment to protecting the integrity of our elections,' said Morales, who is a naturalized citizen from Guatemala, in a news release. Voters who are flagged by the system and cannot have their citizenship verified by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles will be notified via mail and given 30 days to provide proof of citizenship, according to House Enrolled Act 1264. Some citizens may receive such notification, as those who registered to vote before 2005 did not have to provide their Social Security number or state-issued ID. The 2024 law defines proof of citizenship as a birth certificate, passport, naturalization document or naturalization number. Legible photocopies are also acceptable. If the individual is unable to provide documentation, they can appeal to the county election board. The board's decision will be forwarded to the county voter registration office, which will ensure records reflect the verdict. It's unclear how the revamped data system and its partnerships with states will impact federal immigration enforcement efforts. Neither the Indiana Secretary of State's office nor the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services responded to IndyStar's request for comment by publication, including whether it will use the new collaboration to detain, deport or investigate undocumented immigrants. The lack of information has generated some concern, including from a state election official who told National Public Radio (NPR) they worried the information would be used to aid President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign. This story may be updated.
Indianapolis Star
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
What the Supreme Court's decision on porn age verification means for Indiana
The Supreme Court on June 27 upheld a Texas law requiring pornographic websites to verify a user's age, a ruling that could impact access in Indiana. Indiana lawmakers in 2024 approved a measure requiring porn website operators to enact age verification processes, and allowing parents to sue if their children get past them, following the example of several other states. Several of those operators and free-speech advocates immediately sued the state over this law, as they did in other states, but the Indiana lawsuit has been in a holding pattern pending this Supreme Court decision. The competing interests in all of these lawsuits are First Amendment rights to free speech and expression balanced against minors' exposure to sexually explicit material. In Indiana as in Texas, the plaintiffs argue these age restriction measures are overly burdensome and restrict free speech unnecessarily while placing privacy at risk. More: Supreme Court upholds Texas' age verification law for porn sites For example, they argue there are more effective options out there to address the same end without introducing a barrier to adults' access, such as content filtering at the browser or device level. Defenders like Attorney General Todd Rokita have said protecting children from "harmful" content overrides these concerns. The Supreme Court voted along ideological lines in arguing that Texas' law is not overly burdensome, saying it uses "established methods of providing government-issued identification and sharing transactional data." Indiana's law is similar: Acceptable age verification methods include a mobile identification credential issued by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, an independent third-party age verification service, or "any commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data." From 2024: Porn website operators sue Indiana AG Todd Rokita to block age verification law After Pornhub and others sued Indiana in June, a federal judge granted their request to block the law, but then an appeals court rescinded that injunction in August, allowing the law to go into effect. Meanwhile, Pornhub has disabled access to its website for people surfing the web within Indiana. The plaintiffs later requested to pause the proceedings in Indiana until the Supreme Court made a decision on the Texas law, which a judge granted, acknowledging that the question of what standard to apply to these free speech concerns is similar in both cases, and the Supreme Court's answer may help streamline the discovery process in Indiana. According to a November filing in the case, the parties will reconvene within two weeks.
Indianapolis Star
23-06-2025
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
Indiana doesn't have a DMV. We have a BMV, and they won't text you to pay a ticket
No, the Indiana Department of Vehicles won't text you to demand you pay your traffic tickets. In fact, there is no "Indiana DMV." In Indiana, drivers instead have the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, or BMV. But they aren't sending you these texts, either. IndyStar wrote about this text message scam that has been reported across several states targeting Hoosiers earlier this month, but those texts are still in circulation. If you receive a text like this, it's just another smishing, or SMS phishing scam, and you should not go to the link in the text. The scam is similar to recent fraudulent texts and emails about unpaid tolls. The messages may claim that if unpaid traffic fines aren't paid right away, drivers will face actions such as their vehicle registrations or licenses being suspended, additional fees and prosecution. "Please pay immediately before enforcement to avoid license suspension and further legal disputes," one text message reads. It gives a link that is not for a government website. Scam texts: Indianapolis is one of the top cities receiving toll road scam texts in the United States Don't follow the instructions in the text. You can report the fraudulent texts to the Federal Trade Commission at
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
3,600 pairs of new license plates to be replaced after printing error
Jun. 6—The state will replace thousands of newly issued license plates after a printing error, the Department of the Secretary of State said. About 3,600 pairs of license plates were printed with the wrong amount of space between numbers and letters, office spokesperson Jana Spaulding said on a Friday evening phone call. She said the erroneous license plates were printed within the same time frame. "It could potentially cause an issue with E-ZPass and other things that do that character reading," she said. "Obviously an inconvenience, which is unfortunate, but was caught quickly." The new plates, which feature a pine tree reminiscent of the 1901 state flag, are being manufactured in Canada. They began replacing Maine's time-honored chickadee plates last month. The 3,600 drivers who were issued the faulty plates are being notified by letter, Spaulding said. The office will mail impacted drivers replacement plates and sticker tags at no cost. In the meantime, drivers are asked to use the errant plates and notify the Bureau of Motor Vehicles of any issues related to scanning, Spaulding said. "It's a relatively minor, short-term error," she said, adding that the issue affected only "3,600 out of a few million" the agency intends to distribute this year. Those who receive replacement plates can return the faulty ones to the BMV or hold onto them as a keepsake, but they should not be used on a vehicle, Spaulding said. Copy the Story Link
