The federal government gave a victory to the Republicans as it agreed to allow Florida to use a database from law enforcement to challenge a person’s right to vote if someone suspects they are not a U.S. citizen. The agreement, sent in the form of a letter to Rick Scott, the Governor of Florida, grants his state permission to access a list maintained by Homeland Security that is of resident noncitizens.

The White House administration had denied for months the requests by Florida but relented last week after a ruling by a judge was in the state’s favor in a related matter over voter purging.

Voting rights activists, while acknowledging noncitizens do not have the right to cast a ballot, have expressed much alarm about the use of this data for a reason it was not intended for originally: purging lists of voters. The activists also say that voter purges taking place less than four months prior to a presidential election could leave an insufficient amount of time to correct any mistakes from any faulty data.

Many democrats said that concessions made by the government are not as troubling as the states’ that are Republican controlled that are pushing to require all voters to have photo IDs in order to vote.

Republicans however, say it is a big victory in their fight over voter’s eligibility, something that could prove big in the race for the White House. That is very true in states, which are pivotal like North Carolina, Nevada, Colorado and Florida. Republicans said several states were attempting to combat the amount of voter fraud. Democrats do not see it that way; they accuse their counterparts of suppressing the vote of those who usually vote for Democrats.