Internal emails from the Department of Homeland Security show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was exploring how to use a Palantir-supported tool called ELITE to investigate voter fraud. The emails, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Democracy Forward and published by WIRED, describe plans to feed processed voter roll data into ELITE, which stands for Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement. One May 26 email from an HSI worker said coordination with the agency's Innovation Lab was continuing, particularly on ingesting voter roll data to enhance lead management and investigative tracking.
Palantir, however, told WIRED that voter roll data has never been integrated into ELITE. The discrepancy suggests the emails were describing an intended future capability rather than an active system. A July 7 email mentioned that data from six states—Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Michigan, and New Mexico—had been "enriched by the iLab and are pending Palantir entry into ELITE," though it remains unclear what that enrichment involved.
The records also show ICE's broader role in election fraud investigations, including scrutiny of more than 150 nonprofit groups. Fordham Law professor Chinmayi Sharma, who tracks ELITE, said the choice to build such a system within DHS likely reflects existing infrastructure and legal authorities, even though noncitizen voting is documented as vanishingly rare. The Justice Department has so far brought charges in only 16 cases involving foreign nationals, all lawful permanent residents. The emails suggest the system was being built for the long term rather than deployed for the upcoming midterms.