The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday sued six states — Michigan, Pennsylvania, California, New York, New Hampshire, and Minnesota — for what it said was a "failure to produce their statewide voter registration lists upon request."
- This article originally appeared on Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access. Sign up for their newsletter here.
The U.S. Justice Department has sent letters to several states — and said it will eventually contact every state — asking for copies of their voter lists and for detailed information about how they maintain them. The department has said it's seeking to enforce requirements in federal law that President Donald Trump has ordered it to prioritize.
Some states have declined to turn over their full voter rolls, arguing that to share personally identifiable information would violate various federal and state laws. Several of the states that were sued Thursday, including Michigan and Pennsylvania, have turned over or directed the department to the publicly available versions of their voter rolls, which exclude sensitive personal information.
The department is requesting personally identifying information that states don't usually make public, such as partial Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers. So far, many states, including the six the Justice Department sued Thursday, have declined to provide that information, citing privacy concerns and state law.
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The lawsuits, filed in federal court in each of the six states, ask federal judges to force states to provide the voter rolls, including full names, addresses, and either driver's license numbers or the last four digits of the voters' Social Security numbers. The lawsuits assert that states are required to provide the information so the Justice Department can assess compliance with federal laws, specifically the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.
In addition to the six states that were sued Thursday, the department last week sued Maine and Oregon.
Pennsylvania will "vigorously fight the federal government's overreach in court," Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, a Republican, said in a statement, calling the department's request for personal information "unprecedented and unlawful."
"As Secretary of the Commonwealth, I have an obligation to protect the personal information that Pennsylvania voters entrust us with, and I take that obligation extremely seriously," he said.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, in a statement to Votebeat, said the Justice Department "is trying to get us to turn over the private, personal information of more than 8 million state residents."
State and federal law both implement strict privacy protections, she said, adding that the federal government has not clearly said how it intends to use the data.
Benson, a Democrat, called the Department's request an "illegal and unconstitutional power grab."
In a statement, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, said his office had told the Justice Department it could not provide private voter data without "information about how the information will be used and secured." Instead of providing that, Simon said, the Justice Department sued.
New York state and New Hampshire officials said they're reviewing the lawsuits and declined to comment. California officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuits.
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access. Sign up for their newsletters here.