DHS seeks nationwide voter registration data for immigration fraud checks
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a request for information to collect voter registration and history files from every state and territory to aid its immigration fraud investigations.
The Homeland Security Department released a request for information seeking a third-party contractor to compile voter registration files and, where possible, public voting-history records from every state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. The collected information is intended to support fraud-detection and data-segmentation activities of Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
DHS emphasizes that the contractor must follow applicable jurisdictional laws, remain politically neutral, and refrain from gathering or using party-affiliation data. The program will begin with a limited number of jurisdictions and may expand during the contract term, with annual collections planned. No contract has been awarded and the agency has not disclosed the anticipated cost. The move follows President Donald Trump's recent claims of foreign interference in voter data and his broader push for stricter election security measures ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
Why it matters
Collecting voter data could expand federal surveillance and influence election-security debates before the midterms.
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