Daijiworld Media Network - Washington
Washington, Sep 7: The Donald Trump administration has stepped up efforts to review and verify voter-registration records across the United States ahead of the November midterm elections, in a move that has drawn comparisons with India’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
As part of the initiative, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning to create a national database containing voter-registration and election-history information collected from all 50 states. The proposed database is expected to cost up to $5 million, with the administration saying the effort is aimed at identifying potential voter fraud and improving election integrity.
The administration has also sought access to voter rolls from states and local election authorities. The Justice Department has pursued voter data from nearly all 50 states, arguing that the information is required to ensure compliance with federal laws governing voter-registration list maintenance.
Under a March 2026 executive order, the administration directed the Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Social Security Administration, to compile lists of people confirmed as US citizens and eligible by age for federal elections. The lists are to be shared with state election officials and updated before federal elections.
The administration has also sought to use federal databases, including the DHS Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, to check voter eligibility. However, the effort has faced legal challenges. A federal appeals court on September 5 upheld a ruling preventing the administration from using the SAVE database for citizenship checks on voter rolls, citing concerns over privacy and the possibility that eligible voters could be wrongly removed.
Civil rights and voting groups have similarly warned that inaccurate or outdated government databases could result in eligible citizens, particularly naturalised citizens, being incorrectly flagged or removed from voter rolls. A lawsuit filed in Washington has challenged the administration’s broader effort to use federal databases to create citizenship lists for election purposes.
The issue is particularly significant for Indian-origin voters, who form an influential voting bloc in states such as New York, New Jersey, California and Texas. Voter registration and verification rules vary across the United States, and any large-scale cross-checking of voter records could affect voters whose information does not match across government databases.
However, claims that around 10 lakh of the estimated 26 lakh Indian-origin voters in the United States are specifically at risk of being removed from voter rolls could not be independently confirmed from reliable sources reviewed for this report. The actual number of voters who could be removed, if any, would depend on individual state procedures and the outcome of verification and legal challenges.
The Trump administration is also pushing legislation aimed at tightening voter-registration and voting requirements. The proposed SAVE America Act, formally known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, would require proof of US citizenship for registration in federal elections and identification at the time of voting. The administration has strongly backed the measure, while opponents have warned that such requirements could make voting more difficult for eligible citizens.
The voter-verification drive comes as the United States prepares for the November 3 midterm elections, with disputes over federal involvement in election administration, voter-roll access and mail-in voting already being fought in courts across the country.