State Department Considers Sharing Passport Data for Voter Citizenship Checks

The State Department is assessing a plan to grant state and local officials access to federal passport records in an effort to verify the citizenship of registered voters. This initiative aims to ensure that only U.S. citizens are listed on voter rolls ahead of the midterm elections.

The department is exploring methods to share passport information securely, with the objective of "protects Americans' data, deters fraud and supports the integrity of U.S. citizenship," according to a statement provided to NewsNation.

The Justice Department revealed the plan in a court filing, indicating that federal officials intend to use passport records to identify individuals who may not be U.S. citizens on voter registration lists. The filing noted that the State Department would publish a notice in the Federal Register to establish a new "routine use" for records maintained in its Passport Services Records system, as required by the 1974 Privacy Act.

This development follows a recent 6-3 Supreme Court decision that permitted the Department of Homeland Security to share citizenship information with local governments for the purpose of voter verification. Earlier efforts by the administration to verify voter eligibility using federal records, primarily from the Social Security Administration and DHS, faced legal challenges and were blocked by court rulings.

The Justice Department's filing was made in a lawsuit brought by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and other plaintiffs challenging an executive order on mail voting. The Supreme Court had previously declined to lift an injunction that blocked the U.S. Postal Service from implementing parts of its mail-ballot rule for the elections.