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  • US Justice Department sues 3 states, District of Columbia for voter data – WTOP News

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    The U.S. Justice Department sued three states and the District of Columbia on Thursday for not turning over requested voter information to the Trump administration.

    FILE – A voter leaves Albion Town hall after casting their ballot on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024, in Albion, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf, File)(AP/Kayla Wolf)

    MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department sued three states and the District of Columbia on Thursday for not turning over requested voter information to the Trump administration.

    The latest lawsuits were filed against Wisconsin, Illinois, Georgia and the District of Columbia. The Justice Department has now filed 22 lawsuits seeking voter information as part of its effort to collect detailed voting data and other election information across the country.

    “We shared our nation-leading list maintenance practices and public voter roll data with the DOJ December 8 at their request, and we look forward to working together to eliminate the federal barriers that prevent even cleaner voter rolls,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement. “Hardworking Georgians can rest easy knowing this data was shared strictly in accordance with state law that protect voters’ privacy.”

    The latest round comes one week after the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission voted against the Justice Department’s request for the data. Both Republican and Democratic commissioners voiced concerns about the request last week, saying it would be illegal under Wisconsin law to provide the voter roll information that includes the full names, dates of birth, residential addresses and driver’s license numbers of voters.

    Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said the Justice Department should be “serving the interests of the American people, not chasing conspiracy theories.”

    “As has been demonstrated over and over and over again, Wisconsin’s elections are fair and conducted with integrity,” Kaul said.

    The Illinois State Board of Elections declined to comment.

    An Associated Press tally found that the Justice Department has asked at least 26 states for voter registration rolls in recent months, and in many cases asked states for information on how they maintain their voter rolls. Other states being sued by the Justice Department include California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

    Last week, the Justice Department sued Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Nevada.

    The Justice Department said 10 states are either in full compliance or working toward it.

    The Trump administration has characterized the lawsuits as part of an effort to ensure the security of elections, and the Justice Department says the states are violating federal law by refusing to provide the voter lists and information about ineligible voters.

    The lawsuits have raised concerns among some Democratic officials and others who question exactly how the data will be used, and whether the department will follow privacy laws to protect the information. Some of the data sought includes names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

    “The law is clear: states need to give us this information, so we can do our duty to protect American citizens from vote dilution,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement. “Today’s filings show that regardless of which party is in charge of a particular state, the Department of Justice will firmly stand on the side of election integrity and transparency.”

    ___

    Associated Press writers Kate Brumback in Atlanta and John O’Connor in Springfield, Illinois, contributed to this report.

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  • DOJ sues 6 states for private voter data, voting rolls

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    The Department of Justice is suing six additional states to compel them to share their statewide voter registration lists with the federal government, an unusual request that has drawn pushback from election officials in both parties in the past.

    DOJ’s Civil Rights Division filed federal lawsuits Thursday against election officials in California, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New Hampshire claiming the states violated federal law by refusing to share voter rolls with the Trump administration.

    Access to voting rolls varies state by state, but the rolls are generally released to the public and government agencies with voters’ private data — like driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of Social Security numbers — redacted.

    The DOJ’s lawsuits demand the rolls with that data included. Similar requests have been rebuffed by election officials across the country, both recently and in past years, out of privacy concerns and opposition to federal encroachment in state elections. Some officials have also tied the effort to President Donald Trump’s long history of spreading election misinformation, including falsely accusing states of allowing noncitizen immigrants to vote en masse.

    Last week, the DOJ filed similar lawsuits against election officials in Maine and Oregon, prompting sharp rebukes from each state’s top elections official.

    “This is not normal,” Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, said in a statement last week. “Trump’s DOJ is using its immense federal power to try to intimidate us into turning over protected voter data and changing our voting processes to fit President Trump’s whims.”

    Michigan, Minnesota and California have Democrats as their secretaries of state, while New Hampshire and Pennsylvania have Republican chief election officials. New York has a state board of elections. Spokespeople for all six election authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuits.

    The lawsuits demand states to share highly sensitive information on voters, including Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers, as part of the administration’s effort to create “clean voter rolls.”

    “Clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Every state has a responsibility to ensure that voter registration records are accurate, accessible, and secure — states that don’t fulfill that obligation will see this Department of Justice in court.”

    The Trump administration appears to be prioritizing access to the private information of voters. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson sanctioned the release of some voter roll data to DOJ after multiple requests but did not include any personally identifying information on voters.

    In March, Trump signed an executive order directing DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security to take measures preventing noncitizens from voting in elections — a baseless claim that Trump has touted for years, including ahead of the 2024 election and in his attempts to delegitimize the results of the 2020 election.

    DOJ has sent requests for voter rolls to over 30 states, according to data from the Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal think tank and advocacy organization.

    Trump explored a similar measure during his first term. He established the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in 2017 to examine cases of voter fraud.

    The commission’s request for private voter information was met with opposition from state officials in both parties before it was dissolved the following year, with a then-Republican secretary of state telling the commission to “go jump in the Gulf of Mexico” in response to broad requests.

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