ProPublica and Texas Tribune Find Missouri Barred Flagged Voters From Voting While Checks Were Pending

The byline date is February 13, 2026.

On Missouri, the article reports that state officials directed county election administrators to make voters flagged as potential noncitizens “temporarily unable to vote,” and that “in hundreds of cases, the tool’s determinations were wrong.”

On what happens after a flag, the article reports a remark by Brian Broderick, who leads the verification division at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: that when SAVE flags voters as noncitizens, “they are also referred to DHS for possible criminal investigation.” The article gives this as his statement at a conference; the article does not say how many flagged voters were referred or that any flagged citizen was contacted by an agent.

In Denton County, Texas, county staff reached clear answers on 26 of the 84 flagged voters: some proved they were citizens, and “Fourteen more had marked on their registration forms that they weren’t.” The county elections administrator, Frank Phillips, said he removed anyone who did not provide proof by the deadline, but “he fears some were eligible voters.”