DOJ Sues 6 More States Seeking Voter Data, Amplifying Privacy Act Concerns, Says CDT
DOJ's filing of six lawsuits against states on Tuesday “escalate an unprecedented effort to collect sensitive voter information" from them in what is potentially a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974, Tim Harper, senior policy analyst of elections and democracy at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) told us. In a statement to Privacy Daily, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha (D) condemned the suits as the "weaponization" of the DOJ, which also sued California in September for refusing to give up its voter rolls (see 2512020022).
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The DOJ said Tuesday its lawsuits were filed in federal court against Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington state for failing to submit voter registration lists to the federal government as requested.
The suits claim the Civil Rights Act of 1960 (CRA) gives the U.S. Attorney General authority “to demand the production, inspection, and analysis of the statewide voter registration lists,” DOJ said in its news release.
The DOJ's complaints also allege that the data demand is needed to enforce the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), “which were designed by Congress to ensure that states have proper and effective voter registration and voter list maintenance programs.”
Said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday in the release, "Accurate voter rolls are the cornerstone of fair and free elections, and too many states have fallen into a pattern of noncompliance with basic voter roll maintenance,"
However, CDT's Harper, in an email, said that secretaries of state, "including from three of the newly targeted [6] states, have already warned that handing over this data raises serious Privacy Act concerns and may violate state laws.” The states “carry the constitutional responsibility for running elections, and they are right to demand clear answers about how this data will be used.” Thus far, “federal agencies have refused to clarify how the information will be used and with whom it will be shared," he said.
“Compelling states to hand over voter records en masse isn’t election protection, either,” Harper added. “It’s part of a broader and deeply concerning federal effort to aggregate unprecedented volumes of Americans’ private data, which comes with minimal transparency and significant civil rights risks.”
Neronha, the Rhode Island AG, said the suits are “just the latest example of the weaponization of the Department of Justice to further the Trump Administration’s unlawful whims.”
He also agreed with an assessment by Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) on local news yesterday. “We stand with and will defend the Secretary, and win, because lawsuits concerning lawful conduct are largely unsuccessful," the AG said. "But I’m not surprised that this Administration is confused about what it means to behave lawfully.”
Monday, advocacy groups blasted the government's data demand for California voter information and asked a federal court to dismiss the case, U.S. v. Shirley Weber (No. 2:25-cv-09149). In addition, a coalition of 16 Democratic attorneys general -- including from all the states sued Tuesday except Vermont -- asked to file an amicus brief in support of California (see 2512010046).