ICE Prepares $5 Million Contract for Nationwide Voter Database Procurement

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing to award a federal contract valued at up to $5 million to construct a centralized nationwide database of voter records, according to government procurement documents first reported by Wired.

The procurement project is designed to acquire and securely process publicly available voter registration and voting history records from across the country. Official acquisition documents state that the data will support data segmentation and fraud detection activities managed by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the primary investigative branch within ICE. The selected contractor will initially provide files for targeted states specified by the government while maintaining the operational capacity to aggregate voter records from all 50 states for general, primary, runoff, and special federal elections.

Although the initial procurement guidelines state that contractors will not be required to collect political party affiliation fields, that requirement could be added if authorized in writing by HSI Section Chief Michael Royer. An acquisition forecast issued Monday puts the contract's expected value between $2 million and $5 million. The final contract solicitation is expected to be published next Monday, with an expedited award timeframe expected before the contract term expires on Sept. 30. ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and Royer did not respond to requests for comment.

The planned database represents part of a broader push by DHS and the Trump administration ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. Previous efforts by the Department of Justice to secure unredacted voter registries encountered resistance from state election authorities and federal courts. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers criticized federal election initiatives, stating that voting procedures remain a state issue rather than a federal responsibility.

In addition to database procurement, DHS internal guidance first reported by CNN outlined plans to deploy personnel for field interviews and prosecutorial support regarding alleged voter fraud. However, recent state investigations, including a review conducted in Georgia, indicate that noncitizen voting incidents remain extremely rare.

The database procurement reflects ICE's ongoing reliance on commercial data vendors and public-records aggregators. In July, 404 Media reported that ICE agreed to pay $125 million to enterprise data provider Thomson Reuters for access to its CLEAR platform, which consolidates voter rolls, property data, driver's license databases, and social media records.

Beyond commercial software platforms, federal authorities have pursued direct avenues to voting records. Axios reported in June that ICE agents acquired voter rolls directly from county officials in Texas and North Carolina. Furthermore, Wired previously reported that DOGE has been compiling a centralized master database integrating DHS data alongside records from the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, and state voting files from Florida and Pennsylvania. A senior DHS official noted that the initiative focuses on large-scale cross-referencing of immigration records against federal tax, social security, and state voter data.