ICE Plans to Pay $5 Million to Create National Voting Database

The Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has announced plans to pay up to $5 million to develop a national voting database. According to a document released last week, the purpose of the acquisition is to handle and securely deliver publicly available voter registration and history files to aid in fraud detection and data segmentation activities for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an investigative unit within ICE.

Initially, ICE will request specific states' voter registration files, but the selected contractor must be able to obtain data from all 50 states. The contractor will also need to gather voting history data "for each federal election specified by the government," including general, primary, runoff, and special federal elections.

ICE is seeking publicly available information from each state, which has varying rules on how it can be obtained. This could include voter registration and, in some cases, voting history, potentially encompassing party affiliation. While the contract does not explicitly require the collection of party affiliation data, it could be added if explicitly directed by the contracting officer, Michael Royer, section chief at HSI.

The successful contractor is expected to be awarded the contract soon, with the final agreement projected to be published next Monday, as the contract term is set to expire on September 30. ICE's initiative to create a national voting database is part of a broader effort by the DHS and the Trump administration to undermine trust in upcoming midterm elections.

For over a year, the Department of Justice has been requesting states relinquish unredacted voter rolls, which have been met with resistance from states and courts. In addition to its efforts to create a national database, ICE has also sought access to voter files, obtaining data from election officials in Texas and North Carolina.

The agency has also threatened to deport individuals suspected of voting illegally, even when they have no criminal convictions. Despite claims from DHS and the Trump administration, incidents of noncitizens voting are exceedingly rare, with a recent Georgia investigation uncovering very few instances.