U.S. seeks to expand passport records access for voter checks

The U.S. State Department is moving to give state and local officials, as well as potentially some nonprofit organizations, access to passport records to verify voters' citizenship.

The plan, laid out in a notice recently sent to key lawmakers on Capitol Hill, would add "voter eligibility" to the official list of "routine uses" for the State Department's passport services records and provide access beyond government entities. Historically, uses of the data have primarily involved domestic and international government agencies and officials. 

The expansion would dovetail with a controversial campaign by the administration o U.S. President Donald Trump to tap into federal records to pursue election fraud investigations and aid states reviewing their voter rolls. It could give more entities access to sensitive data, which is subject to U.S. privacy laws. 

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