Trump admin approves plan to check voters’ citizenship using federal databases

The Trump administration has approved a plan to create a federal voter citizenship verification system for state voter rolls, according to a court filing submitted Friday. It is also exploring the use of U.S. Postal Service data to monitor mail-in ballots, marking a significant step toward implementing some of the most controversial parts of President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-voting executive order.

The filing, submitted by the Department of Justice in multiple lawsuits challenging the Order, provides the clearest signal yet that the administration is actively moving to implement the order’s voter citizenship provisions. Voting rights advocates have warned those provisions could threaten eligible voters’ access to the ballot.

According to the notice, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) approved a recommendation from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on June 4 regarding implementation of the executive order’s citizenship verification requirements.

“On June 4, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) approved a recommendation from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regarding implementation of Executive Order 14,399, including the creation of State Citizenship Lists as contemplated in § 2 of Executive Order 14,399,” the filing states.

The newly approved plan would operate in two parts.

First, state election officials would be permitted to submit entire statewide voter registration lists to USCIS’s SAVE database. SAVE is a federal system that was originally built to verify immigration status for government benefit programs, not voter eligibility.

The second component would create a new portal allowing state election officials to access citizenship-related data maintained by USCIS, the Social Security Administration and the State Department. The underlying information would remain inside each agency’s existing systems.

The administration plans to move quickly.

According to the filing, both systems are expected to be operational by June 30 — less than a month after DHS approved the proposal.

The disclosure is notable because it provides the most detailed public description yet of how the administration intends to carry out the executive order’s citizenship verification provisions. It arrives as multiple lawsuits challenging the order continue to move through federal court.

The filing also reveals that DHS is exploring coordination with the Postal Service involving future mail-in voting data.

“Moreover, DHS contemplates working with the United States Postal Service (USPS) to integrate USPS datasets from Mail-In and Absentee Ballot Participation Lists,” the filing adds.

The stated goal, according to the administration, would be “to monitor mail-in and absentee ballot flows, identify anomalies that may suggest voter fraud or misuse, and generate authorized investigative leads.”

Voting rights advocates, Democratic groups* and state officials challenging the executive order have argued that the administration lacks authority to impose new federal election requirements. They have also warned that citizenship verification systems risk wrongly flagging eligible voters, particularly naturalized citizens and voters whose records may not perfectly match government databases.

Friday’s filing does not indicate whether any states have agreed to participate in the proposed systems. But it confirms that the administration has formally approved an implementation framework for the executive order’s voter citizenship provisions and intends to have key components operating by the end of the month.

*The Democratic plaintiffs in this case are represented by the Elias Law Group (ELG). ELG firm chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.