Overview
- The president signed an executive order on March 31 directing DHS, the Social Security Administration and other agencies to compile state-by-state citizenship lists to help detect noncitizen voting.
- Agency lawyers told a federal court they expect any compiled lists to be imperfect and unreliable for deciding voter eligibility because records change and no single national citizenship registry exists.
- The order required the U.S. Postal Service to begin a formal rulemaking process within 60 days, and observers expect a Federal Register proposed rule notice imminently that could reshape the pending litigation.
- Multiple Democratic-led states and voting-rights groups have sued to block the order, and courts that previously rejected DOJ attempts to force states to turn over voter files are likely to play a key role in resolving the dispute.
- Privacy and civil-rights experts warn that merging passports, naturalization records, Social Security data and other federal databases could violate the Privacy Act and risk wrongful challenges or disenfranchisement of voters.