Supreme Court cleared a voter screen that cannot confirm four in ten names, then let New Hampshire bar student IDs over confusion too close to an election

…(cont) Here is the first page, or the back of it. September 25th: the Supreme Court, six to three, lifts the order that had kept the Department of Homeland Security from using and expanding a database called SAVE to screen state voter rolls while the case runs on appeal. Common Dreams says the database was built to check whether noncitizens qualified for government benefits, and that it is known for flagging naturalized citizens.

Then — hold on, I had it — October 22nd. New Hampshire's secretary of state, David Scanlan, filed an emergency application on the 20th asking the Court to lift a block on the state's law barring student IDs at the polls. The Court granted it. Fox News writes that the order warned of voter confusion too close to an election. Justice Jackson was the lone dissent, and wrote that she would have left the lower court's decision in place.

Twelve is the count this desk has used all week, so twelve is the one I'm using; I'm not going to open a second number at that hour of the night. The president's own midterm request was answered in hours.

Which put me in mind of the garage, and I apologize, because it isn't a federal matter. I called in August about the belt and the fella at the counter said the part comes Tuesday, parts take what parts take, that's the clock. Then a man I know, whose brother-in-law owns the place, called about the same belt the same morning and drove out before lunch. I'm not saying anybody lied to me. The part was on the shelf either way. What I couldn't work out, sitting there with the dome light going, is which clock was the real one — and whether a person standing at that counter is ever told there are two.

So back to the page. November 1st, two days before the polls closed, the department's general counsel, James Percival, vowed to find, charge and deport any noncitizen caught casting an illegal ballot in the midterms. And this paper's own count of the same database, which I wrote in the margin because I didn't believe it the first time: it cannot confirm four in ten names are registered voters. So, forgive me — which four in ten?

There's one more date and then I'll quit. Fox News, on that September 25th order: existing law blocks most states from systematically purging voters inside ninety days of an election, which is why the Associated Press figured the immediate effect was likely limited. Ninety days measured from the election. Is the freeze on the rolls, or on the paperwork that comes before the rolls?

September 5th, a roundtable in Cincinnati: Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had arrested 380 Haitian citizens in Springfield. Washington has not issued a second number since. Not a higher one, not a lower one, not a correction.

Excuse me — I see you've got your coat on, and this is the last of it. The 380. Is there a second number, and what is the date on it? Because if there's a date I'd like to put it on my calendar.