Numident
Social Security Administration master file of number holders, carrying citizenship data.
Election officials can again run bulk citizenship checks against Numident after the Supreme Court's 6-3 stay on 25 September 2026 let DHS restore the SAVE link to Social Security's master file.
Last refreshed: 1 October 2026
Timeline for Numident
Mentioned in: Supreme Court revives DHS's SAVE checks
US Midterms 2026Background
Numident is the Social Security Administration's master file of Social Security number holders, covering natural-Born citizens as well as naturalised citizens and non-citizens. According to the federal court record cited in the Supreme Court, it holds names, dates and places of birth, citizenship indicators and death records.
The Social Security Administration built Numident to administer Social Security numbers, not to verify voters. Its use in elections came through DHS's SAVE System, which in 2025 began matching election officials' bulk queries against it.
The weak point challengers name is currency: a citizenship indicator recorded when a number was issued may not reflect a later naturalisation, so the file can wrongly flag a recently naturalised citizen.
Bulk checks against the file resume
In 2025 DHS and the Social Security Administration connected Numident to DHS's SAVE System, so election officials could test voters' citizenship in bulk against the file's citizenship indicators. A federal district judge, Sparkle Sooknanan, set that modified system aside on 22 June 2026, and on 4 September the D.C. Circuit left it switched off.
On 25 September the Supreme Court stayed that ruling 6-3, reopening the link while the appeal runs. The file can be queried again, but the 90-day quiet period that opened on 5 August bars systematic roll removals before 3 November, so states must act on its matches one voter at a time until then.