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The U.S. Justice Department sued Arizona on Tuesday after Secretary of State Adrian Fontes declined to turn over the state’s unredacted voter list, the latest in a series of such lawsuits the Trump administration has filed against states around the country.
The Justice Department also filed a similar lawsuit against Connecticut. The agency has said it is asking every state for its unredacted voter lists — unprecedented requests for versions of the voter rolls that contain personally identifying information such as voters’ full birthdates, full or partial Social Security numbers, and driver’s license information — as part of a Trump administration effort to exercise new oversight over the maintenance of state voter rolls.
Many states, led by officials of both political parties, have refused the Justice Department’s request, generally arguing that states are responsible for voter registration and are barred by state and federal law from sharing certain private information about voters. Election officials and voter watchdog groups have said the effort also appears to represent an attempt to build a national voter roll.
Fontes said on Dec. 19 that he had rejected a request from the Justice Department for the data, the third request he said he had received. Arizona voters “have important privacy rights that cannot be infringed because they choose to exercise their constitutionally protected voting rights,” he said.
The Justice Department has said it is entitled to the data under federal law, and withholding it interferes with its ability to exercise oversight and enforce federal election laws.
“Accurate voter rolls are essential to ensuring that American citizens’ votes count only once, and only with other eligible voters,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement announcing the lawsuits against Arizona and Connecticut.
The agency said in the statement that it has so far sued 23 states that have declined to turn over the lists. It has also sued Washington, D.C.
In an interview with “The Charlie Kirk Show” last month, Dhillon said 13 states are voluntarily turning over their voter rolls.
In the suit against Arizona, the department cited the Civil Rights Act’s requirement for states to turn over certain voting records to the Justice Department upon the attorney general’s request, and also cited the requirement for states to comply with two federal election laws, the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.
Fontes posted a video on social media responding to the lawsuit and social media posts from a Justice Department lawyer, telling the lawyer to “pound sand.” In a statement Tuesday, Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas said the state follows the law to ensure voters can participate “without fear that their information will be misused or exposed.”
This story has been updated.
Carrie Levine is Votebeat’s editor-in-chief and is based in Washington, D.C. Contact Carrie at clevine@votebeat.org.
