Palantir-Backed ICE Tool May Be Used to Investigate Alleged Illegal Voting

As the Trump administration continues its efforts to undermine this year’s midterm elections, the Department of Homeland Security appears to be considering whether Palantir-backed tools could help track people it believes may have voted illegally.

FOIA Documents Detail DHS Voter Fraud Investigation

The information comes from a tranche of documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and released this week by the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward.

The documents show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is at the center of a federal voter fraud investigation focused on whether noncitizens were helped to register to vote. The records also reveal that Homeland Security officials are considering how existing data systems could support the investigation.

HSI Leads Effort to Identify Potential Voter Fraud

Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, one of ICE’s two main components, is spearheading efforts to uncover alleged voter fraud. ICE’s Innovation Lab, known internally as iLab, develops tools for agency personnel.

ICE appears to want to create “a better system for determining how to investigate and potentially sue people,” Chinmayi Sharma, an associate professor at Fordham Law School who has closely tracked a Palantir-supported tool called ELITE, told WIRED.

“You want to build on what you already have, where the necessary infrastructure and data sources already exist,” Sharma said.

An HSI official wrote that the iLab process relies on Department of Justice voting rolls and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data. Criminal history information was not included at the time, although efforts were underway to address that limitation.

The official sent an email with “Vote Fraud” in the subject line on May 26. As with other employees, the names of the officials were redacted in the records released to Democracy Forward.

“Coordination continues with iLab regarding the ingestion of processed voter roll data into the ELITE enforcement system to enhance lead management, analytical review, and investigative tracking, among other things,” the official wrote.

What Is Palantir’s ELITE System?

ELITE stands for Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement. The system’s existence was first reported by 404 Media in January.

ICE officers using ELITE can create maps of potential deportation targets, retrieve files on individual targets and view a “confidence score” for a person’s current address.

However, a Palantir spokesperson told WIRED, “Voter roll data has never been integrated into ELITE.”

DHS Emails Reference “Election Integrity Investigation”

ELITE was mentioned again in a July 7 email from a DHS official. The email included an attachment titled “Fraud WAR,” with WAR typically referring to weekly activity reports.

The attachment provided updates on the agency’s “Election Integrity Investigation.” It stated that Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Michigan and New Mexico were “funded by iLab, pending Palantir’s entry into ELITE.”

The records do not make clear what information was specifically enriched or awaiting entry into Palantir. In another email in the same chain, a DHS official said someone at the agency would provide updates to the White House.