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What happened?
On Tuesday, a coalition of voting rights groups filed suit against the U.S. Department of Justice to block the Trump administration from collecting voters’ personal data in order to create what they argue is a national voter list.
What’s the dispute?
Last fall, the DOJ began asking states for their voter rolls — massive lists containing significant identifying information on every registered voter in each state, including partial Social Security numbers — and other election-related data. The DOJ has said the effort is central to enforcing federal election law requiring states to regularly maintain voter lists by searching for and removing ineligible voters.
At least 12 states, including Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming, have voluntarily complied.
The DOJ has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., for refusing to turn over their full voter lists. Federal courts have dismissed those cases in five states, although the administration has been appealing those decisions.
In the lawsuit, plaintiffs argue the DOJ’s efforts are an attempt to take over voter list maintenance from the states, violating privacy laws and risking wrongful voter removals.
“No federal statute authorizes DOJ’s sprawling new voter surveillance, data consolidation, and purging operation. In taking these actions, DOJ is usurping powers that the Constitution and federal statutes vest in the States,” the lawsuit says.
Who are the plaintiffs?
Voters from Texas and Nebraska and voting advocacy organization Common Cause. The plaintiffs are represented by organizations such as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the American Civil Liberties Union, Protect Democracy, the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, and the Democracy and Rule of Law Clinic at Harvard Law School.
What are the plaintiffs asking for?
The plaintiffs are asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to halt the DOJ’s efforts to collect the data and to order the data to be deleted. In addition, they want the courts to prevent the DOJ from “disclosing any confidential voter list data internally and to non-DOJ personnel, including to other federal agencies, state agencies, or private contractors,” the lawsuit says.
What happens now?
The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At least one other lawsuit filed in federal court is also challenging the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE — the database used to check the citizenship of registered voters. The database was revamped by the Trump administration last year to enable states to run their entire voter rolls through it.
Read more Votebeat coverage:
- DHS subpoenas Texas counties for voters’ registrations and histories
- Michigan voter roll fight may be first to land at the Supreme Court
- Texas shares entire voter registration list with the Trump administration
- U.S. Justice Department sues Arizona, Connecticut for access to unredacted state voter rolls
- U.S. Justice Department sues WEC for not providing unredacted voter list
- Why states should scrutinize Trump administration’s requests for voter rolls
Natalia Contreras is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. She is based in Corpus Christi, Texas. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@votebeat.org.
