DHS posts ‘Citizenship Lists Portal’ to advance Trump’s anti-voting order

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published a new webpage that will help carry out President Donald Trump’s plans to create a national voter registry and shape who can vote in the upcoming midterm elections. 

It’s the latest sign that the administration is hurtling forward with plans to put Trump’s dangerous anti-voting March executive order into effect.

The order directed DHS and the Social Security Administration (SSA) to centralize data from across the federal government to create lists of eligible voters in all 50 states.

The new website, dubbed the “State Citizenship Lists Portal,” claims the lists are “coming soon.”

According to a memo it released in June, DHS plans to have the portal fully functional by Friday, Sept. 4.

Voting experts have said the federal government lacks the authority to create such lists, which could be used to challenge voters’ inclusion on state registration lists, and therefore their right to vote. 

Combined, the lists sought by Trump would amount to a nationwide voter eligibility database managed by the federal government. No such thing has ever before existed because the U.S. election system is designed to be managed by states and localities, not the executive branch.

Privacy experts have also warned that the Trump administration would likely violate privacy laws in centralizing Americans’ personal data to compile the lists.

On Tuesday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a privacy advocacy nonprofit, filed a lawsuit against DHS and SSA, challenging the effort as an unconstitutional attempt to seize control of elections.

“No statute authorizes Defendants to share and centralize vast volumes of Americans’ sensitive personal data across government agencies to create and disclose the ‘State Citizenship Lists,’” the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Maryland, reads.