ICE Plans Up to $5 Million Voter-Data Project Ahead of Midterms
Federal procurement records show Homeland Security Investigations is seeking voter data services as the Trump administration dramatically expands its involvement in election enforcement.
The Department of Homeland Security is moving forward with a multimillion-dollar project involving voter-registration and voting-history records as the country approaches the 2026 midterm elections.
A federal acquisition forecast published August 31 shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations division expects to award a contract valued between $2 million and $5 million for what the government calls “Public Voter Data and Handling.”
The government’s own description says the acquisition will provide data services supporting HSI’s ongoing fraud-detection and analytical work.
But additional procurement documents reported by WIRED reveal the extraordinary scope of what ICE is seeking.
According to WIRED, ICE wants publicly available voter-registration files and voter-history files. Although ICE will initially identify particular states from which it wants records, the contractor must have the capability to obtain voter data from all 50 states.
The government is also seeking voting-history information for federal elections it specifies, including general elections, primaries, runoffs and special elections.
One distinction is critical: voting-history records don’t disclose which candidate someone voted for. The secret ballot remains protected. Instead, these records can indicate whether an individual participated in particular elections.
The documents nevertheless raise significant privacy and election-administration questions because voter files can contain considerably more information than simply whether someone voted.
WIRED reports that ICE’s documents say party-affiliation fields will not initially be requested. However, those fields could reportedly be obtained if the contracting officer explicitly directs the contractor to do so.
And this isn’t ICE’s first move into voter records.
Earlier this year, ICE investigators sought individual voter files directly from local election officials. Records obtained by Democracy Forward and reported by Axios showed officials in Webb County, Texas, and Forsyth County, North Carolina, provided voter information requested by ICE personnel.
The voter-data project is emerging as the Trump administration expands federal resources devoted to investigating alleged voter fraud.
The Washington Post reported last week that hundreds of USCIS fraud-detection officers were being reassigned to examine voter data for potential noncitizen registrations. Those officers ordinarily investigate fraud and security concerns involving immigration applications.
Now ICE’s investigative division is preparing another major expansion of that effort.
And the timing is impossible to ignore.
The United States is just weeks away from the November midterm elections, while battles over voter rolls, mail ballots and federal authority over elections are already unfolding in courts across the country.
On Wednesday, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights filed suit against the Trump administration, alleging DHS and Justice Department use of federal databases could improperly flag eligible voters, particularly naturalized citizens. The administration maintains its efforts are intended to identify illegal voting.
The ICE procurement is not merely a proposal mentioned by an anonymous official. The federal government’s own acquisition system confirms the project and its multimillion-dollar estimated value.
The forecast lists an anticipated solicitation release of September 7, with the contract scheduled for completion by September 30.
That makes this a developing story with potentially major implications for voting rights, privacy and federal involvement in elections.
Cup of Culture will continue tracking the procurement and what voter information ICE ultimately obtains.