State voter files contain highly sensitive personal information, and uploading those details into a federal immigration-verification database could expose millions of U.S. citizens to data breaches, identity theft, or future government uses that they never consented to.

Additionally, the Privacy Act of 1974 requires federal agencies to publish a System of Records Notice (SORN) before introducing new uses for collected data disclosing the purpose, routine uses, and categories of records.

This data sharing has triggered legal and constitutional concerns. Data sharing at this scale appears to expand federal power into state-administered elections, raising serious questions about the constitutional authority of states to control and manage their own election systems.

On August 28, 2025, DOJ officials told secretaries of state that the data would be used solely to review list-maintenance practices. Then, on September 11, a DHS official informed those same election leaders that DHS had not requested or received any

requested full statewide voter files from several states, including sensitive details such as dates of birth, home addresses, driver’s-license numbers, passport numbers, and portions of Social Security numbers, claiming the purpose was compliance with federal election laws under HAVA and the NVRA.