Justice Department expands legal action against states that have refused its demands for voter data
BOSTON (AP) — The Justice Department sued six more states on Tuesday. ongoing campaign Obtain detailed voter data and other election information.
The department announced it would sue Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington for their “failure” to create statewide voter registration lists. He cited the lawsuit as part of an effort to ensure election security, but Democratic officials expressed concerns How the data will be used and whether the department will comply with privacy laws in protecting that data.
Tuesday’s protests reached at least 14 number of states The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit over the search for voter information.
“Our federal election laws ensure that every American citizen can vote freely and fairly,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the department’s Civil Rights Division. “States that continue to defy federal voting laws are interfering with our mission to ensure that Americans have accurate voter rolls when they go to the polls, that every vote counts equally, and that all voters have confidence in election results.”
Ministry requested voter data from at least 26 statesAccording to the Associated Press tally. This has raised concerns among some election officials because states have constitutional authority to conduct elections and federal law protects the sharing of individual data with the government.
It also signals that: transformation The Department of Justice’s involvement in the election under President Donald Trump.
many requests included basic questions about the procedures states use to comply with federal voting laws; such as how they identify and remove duplicate voter registrations or voters who have died or are otherwise ineligible to vote. Some questions were more state-specific, referencing data points or perceived inconsistencies in a recent survey by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
Some states sent redacted versions of their voter rolls to the department; in most cases these are also open to the public. But the Justice Department also requested copies containing personally identifiable information, including voters’ names, dates of birth, addresses and driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said his office was aware of the lawsuit and called it “the latest example of the Justice Department being weaponized to further the unlawful whims of the Trump administration.”
“We stand with the secretary and we will defend her and we will win because lawsuits regarding legal conduct are largely failing,” Neronha said. “But I’m not surprised that this administration is confused about what it means to act lawfully.”
Justice Department actions come under pressure from Trump Research the 2020 electionsWhich he lost Democrat Joe Biden and to influence 2026 midterms.
At the same time, voting rights groups have sued the administration, arguing that recent updates to a federal tool for verifying citizenship could result in voters being unlawfully purged from voter rolls.
Last month, 10 Democratic secretaries of state asked the Trump administration to provide more information about its wide-ranging efforts to seek statewide voter registration lists. They expressed concern that federal agencies were clearly misleading them and might be entering data. a program Used to verify US citizenship.
