State Department weighs sharing passport data with states to verify voter citizenship

In preparation for the upcoming midterm elections, the State Department is assessing how to grant state and local election officials access to federal passport records to verify that registered voters are U.S. citizens. The department plans to publish a notice in the Federal Register that would designate the sharing of Passport Services Records as a routine use for identity and citizenship verification, extending to government websites, voter eligibility checks, and other services.

The Justice Department disclosed the proposal in a court filing, noting that the notice could appear as early as Oct. 22. This initiative follows a Supreme Court decision allowing the Department of Homeland Security to share citizenship data with local governments for voter verification, and it revives a strategy previously halted after court challenges to similar programs using Social Security and DHS data. The filing is tied to a lawsuit brought by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee against President Trump’s executive order on mail voting, which the Supreme Court has partially blocked.