They said noncitizen voting wasn’t a problem. Then came the 340 ballots.

I keep coming back to the same question: Why is it controversial to find out whether the people voting in American elections are American citizens?

That shouldn’t be a partisan question. It shouldn’t even be an interesting question. But here we are.

The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the Trump administration to continue using its revamped immigration database to help state and local election officials verify the citizenship of people on their voter rolls while the underlying court fight continues.

This wasn’t a final ruling on the merits, and I said that on the show because the distinction matters. The litigation isn’t over.

But the argument surrounding it tells you plenty.

For years we’ve heard variations of the same response whenever noncitizen voting comes up. It doesn’t happen. Then, when examples turn up, the answer becomes: Well, it doesn’t happen very much.

Now we have New Jersey.

As I discussed Friday, New Jersey disclosed that a software glitch at its motor vehicle agency inadvertently registered roughly 6,600 noncitizens to vote. According to the account I was reading on the air, about 340 of them actually cast ballots.

Three hundred and forty.

I’m not claiming those votes changed an election. I’m not claiming there was some enormous conspiracy. I’m saying something much simpler: We keep being assured that this isn’t a problem, and then we find hundreds of ballots in one state that shouldn’t have been cast.

That’s usually the moment when a curious person starts asking questions.

Instead, too much of the argument seems to be about why we shouldn’t look too closely.

The Washington Post’s framing particularly got under my skin. Its story said noncitizens “sometimes wind up on state voter rolls because of mistakes,” then pointed to New Jersey’s software glitch.

Fine. In New Jersey, officials themselves described what happened as inadvertent. But that doesn’t establish that every questionable registration everywhere is an innocent mistake.

And even when it is a mistake, shouldn’t we want to find it?

That’s the part of this debate I can’t get past.

If a government database can help an election official determine that somebody on a voter roll isn’t a citizen, why wouldn’t we want the election official to know that? If the database produces errors, challenge the errors. If the government’s methodology is flawed, challenge the methodology. That’s what courts are for.

But “don’t check” is a strange position.

The Supreme Court majority said the federal government has an obligation to respond when state and local election officials ask for help verifying citizenship. The liberal justices dissented, and the broader legal fight will continue.

Good. Fight it out. Test the law. Test the database. Test the evidence.

Just don’t tell me there’s nothing worth checking while New Jersey is standing in the corner waving 6,600 registrations and 340 ballots at us.

Friday’s show wasn’t all voter databases and Supreme Court orders, thankfully. It was also one of those wonderful days when the music calendar practically writes part of the show for you.

John Bonham died on this date in 1980, only 32 years old. Led Zeppelin’s response after losing him still says something about what that band was. They didn’t go shopping for another drummer and pretend nothing had happened. They ultimately said they couldn’t continue as they had been. There was something almost old-fashioned about that loyalty.

We also got into Nirvana and Dave Grohl’s audition, and Will Smith’s birthday — actor, rapper, producer and, yes, “slapper” made the résumé. With Patrice Rushen playing underneath it all, I wondered aloud whether Chris Rock would be sending Will a birthday card.

These are the moments I love about radio. One minute you’re arguing over voter databases and Supreme Court orders. A few minutes later you’re wondering whether Chris Rock remembered Will Smith’s birthday.

But maybe there’s a connection after all.

Politics gets awfully complicated when people have an interest in making simple things complicated.

Citizens should vote in American elections. People who aren’t citizens shouldn’t. If somebody was registered improperly, correct the registration. If somebody voted illegally, find out what happened. If a government system gets it wrong, fix the system.

We can argue about everything after that.

But first, for God’s sake, can we at least agree to check?

— Bo