DHS quietly posts portal for Trump’s 'nightmare' election scheme: report

The Department of Homeland Security has quietly published a new webpage designed to help carry out President Donald Trump’s unprecedented plan to create federal lists of eligible voters in all 50 states.

The newly published “State Citizenship Lists Portal” popped up Tuesday and currently displays a blue box declaring that the lists are “coming soon,” according to a report by Democracy Docket.

A DHS memo released in June said the agency planned to have the portal fully operational by Friday, Sept. 4. The portal stems from a March executive order directing DHS and the Social Security Administration to centralize information held across the federal government and use it to compile state-by-state lists of people deemed eligible to vote, the report said.

“Combined, the lists sought by Trump would amount to a nationwide voter eligibility database managed by the federal government,” according to Democracy Docket. “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.”

Voting experts have argued that federal agencies do not possess the authority to create or administer such lists. They warn the database could be used to challenge individuals’ presence on state voter rolls - and ultimately their right to cast a ballot in November’s midterm election.

Compiling massive amounts of Americans’ personal information could also violate federal privacy protections, advocates warned, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which filed a lawsuit calling the project "flagrantly unlawful."

“Building a database containing the identities, Social Security numbers, addresses, and citizenship information of every U.S. citizen is an extraordinary illegal overreach by the federal government,” said John Davisson, the research center's deputy director.

“This is precisely the nightmare ‘Big Brother’ scenario that the Privacy Act exists to prevent,” he added.