Federal citizen lists to restrict mail ballots; data mismatch risk
President Trump signed an executive order directing DHS, with the Social Security Administration, to compile state-specific "citizenship lists" of eligible voters. The order asks the U.S. Postal Service to mail absentee ballots only to people on those lists and to use unique barcoded "secure" envelopes for tracking. The directive also instructs the Justice Department to prioritize prosecutions for distribution of federal ballots to ineligible voters and threatens to withhold federal funds from noncompliant states. Mechanism matters for defenders. The lists are drawn from federal citizenship, naturalization, SAVE, and SSA records and then transmitted to state election officials at least 60 days before federal elections. Using federal records to gate mail ballots changes the source-of-truth for ballot distribution from state-managed voter rolls to federally compiled datasets.