The Trump administration has delayed the launch of a controversial federal portal containing state-by-state lists of citizens deemed eligible to vote, abandoning a deadline set for Friday, 4 September – exactly 60 days before the US midterm elections.
Justice Department lawyers told opponents in two lawsuits that the government would instead provide 48 hours’ notice before making the portal available to state election officials, according to court filings.
The project is intended to identify people aged 18 and over who the administration believes are US citizens and eligible to vote in each state. It would represent the first known attempt by the federal government to assemble a comprehensive citizenship list for electoral purposes.
The plan has prompted a fresh legal challenge in Maryland, where the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), represented by Protect Democracy and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is seeking to prevent the lists from being created and distributed.
Citizenship lists face legal challenge
The groups argue that the administration’s plan to combine personal information held by the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration and other agencies breaches the Privacy Act, the Social Security Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.
They say agencies are required to give the public notice and an opportunity to comment before collecting and sharing personal data for a new purpose. The lawsuit also alleges that the government lacks reliable, up-to-date records capable of accurately identifying every eligible citizen.
Citizenship information held by the Social Security Administration may not be updated after someone becomes a naturalised citizen, the legal challenge says. The immigration service’s SAVE system may also lack records for people who became citizens as children when their parents naturalised.
That could leave some eligible voters wrongly absent from the lists, particularly people who have moved, changed their names or were born outside the United States.
Jules Torti, a lawyer for Protect Democracy, said the compressed timetable risked creating confusion among election officials and voters shortly before polling day. The organisation has described the proposed database as an unprecedented use of federal data in the administration of elections.
The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for compiling the lists, have not publicly explained the latest delay.
The initiative stems from an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on 31 March. It directs federal agencies to create “State Citizenship Lists” and send them to state election officials at least 60 days before a scheduled federal election.
The order also instructs the attorney general to prioritise investigations and prosecutions involving state or local officials who issue federal ballots to people deemed ineligible to vote.
Maintaining voter registration rolls is traditionally a state responsibility under the US constitutional system. Critics say the order represents an attempt by the White House to exert greater federal control over elections.
A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled in June that key sections of the order were unlawful and violated the separation of powers. The Supreme Court stayed that injunction on 24 August, allowing the administration to proceed while an appeal is considered.
The Supreme Court did not decide whether the citizenship-list plan itself is lawful. Its order allows the injunction to remain suspended while the case moves through the appeals process and, if necessary, returns to the justices.
A separate court filing said the government had secured a web address for the state citizenship portal and that a basic “Coming Soon” page briefly appeared online in recent days. The main portal is not currently available.
The administration has also been examining state voter rolls for possible non-citizen registrations and has sought contractors able to collect voter registration and voting-history data from all 50 states, Washington DC and US territories.
Previous reviews have found that non-citizens casting ballots in US elections is exceptionally rare. The legal challenges warn that relying on incomplete federal records could instead result in eligible citizens being flagged, removed from voter rolls or denied a ballot in the run-up to the 3 November midterm elections.
