ICE intends to build a national voting database for $5 million. – Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is getting ready to give a contract for up to $5 million to a business that would build a large national voter database in an effort to combat alleged voter fraud.
In a document released last week, ICE first described the terms of the arrangement. According to the paper, “the purpose of this acquisition is for the handling and secure delivery of publicly available voter registration files and voter history files to support Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) fraud detection and data segmentation activities.”
Although the chosen contractor must be able to access data from all 50 states, ICE adds in the paper that the agency would initially submit a list of particular states from which it wants to obtain public voter registration files. Additionally, voting history information “for each federal election specified by the government, including general, primary, runoff, and special federal elections” is what ICE is looking for. ICE is requesting publicly accessible information from every state, each of which has its own regulations for the acquisition of such material. Voter registration and, frequently, voting history would fall under this category. Both might involve party affiliation, which experts say will violate US voters’ right to privacy.
According to the paper, if “explicitly directed in writing by the contracting officer,” the successful contractor may be required to gather and share voter party affiliation data fields. Michael Royer, section chief of Homeland Security Investigations, ICE’s investigative unit, is identified as that contracting officer. A request for comment from Royer, DHS, and ICE was not answered. ICE intends to build a national voting database for $5 million.
The ICE deal would be valued between $2 million and $5 million, according to an acquisition forecast document released by the agency on Monday. Given that the contract’s term expires on September 30, the final contract is anticipated to be issued on Monday of next week and is probably going to be awarded shortly after.
The creation of a national voter database by ICE is a component of a larger initiative by the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security to erode confidence in the impending midterm elections. The Department of Justice has been pressuring states to provide unredacted voter rolls in an effort to establish a nationwide voter database for over a year. But courts and states have resisted.
States have already been asked to cooperate with DHS’s investigations. Additionally, the organization stated that states that failed to follow White House election standards would not get financing for emergency preparedness and counterterrorism. Additionally, the agency has targeted voters directly, threatening to deport anyone suspected of casting a ballot illegally, even if they have no criminal record. An investigation conducted this week in Georgia found very few instances of noncitizens casting ballots, despite claims made by DHS and the Trump administration.
In order to “pursue investigative leads, conduct field interviews, and support timely prosecutorial review,” DHS also announced a fresh surge to look into allegations of voter fraud in some states prior to the midterms, according to internal DHS guidelines first revealed by CNN this week.
When questioned about DHS’s plans, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers responded, “It’s a joke.” “I believe that Trump is doing this in order to give the impression that Wisconsin is experiencing a variety of issues that are not. To be honest, he should refrain from becoming involved because voting is a state, not a federal, matter. ICE intends to build a national voting database for $5 million.
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