84a. Securing America’s Future Voting.

Fixing Citizenship Verification with Privacy-First Digital Identity

1) The Citizenship Verification Problem

For decades, election officials have struggled to confirm one simple fact: is a registrant a U.S. citizen? Instead of a single, reliable source, states pull from fragmented records—like DMV databases, juror lists, and outdated immigration files—that often conflict or lag behind real status changes. Naturalized citizens are especially vulnerable. If their updated citizenship status hasn’t propagated across systems, they can be wrongly flagged and forced to fight for their right to vote. Critics claim these gaps invite fraud, while advocates worry about wrongful exclusion. The truth is both problems stem from the same weakness: inconsistent, unreliable data.