A court thwarted the Republican administration’s attempt to access detailed records of Arizona voterswhen a federal judge dismissed the Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit against the state.
The decision It marks the latest setback in an unprecedented national effort by President Donald Trump’s administration ahead of the midterm elections.to collect sensitive information on tens of millions of American citizens.
The DOJ has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia to release voter data, including dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
Susan Brnovich, US District Judgeappointed by Trump, ruled that the list of voters registered throughout the state of Arizona “is not a document that can be requested by Prosecutor Fashioned” in accordance with federal law. Brnovich dismissed the lawsuit definitively because, he wrote, “any amendment would be legally useless.”
According to reporting by Brennan Heart for Justice and the Associated Press, at least 13 states have voluntarily submitted information or agreed to provide their voter registration lists to the department, including: Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.
Aside from Arizona, judges have ruled against the government in Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Oregon. In Georgia, a judge disapproved a DOJ lawsuit because it was filed in the wrong city, forcing the administration to file it elsewhere.
“This moment represents a victory for voter privacy,” said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, noting that the data package requested by the federal government contained the most perfect information. “This is the sixth federal court to reach the same conclusion. Our offices will continue to defend the privacy of Arizona voters against abuses by the federal government.”
Since his interaction with the DOJ over the electoral roll began, Fontes vigorously opposed it, responding to several requests from the administration that ended in the lawsuit. When a DOJ official announced on X that the department had filed a lawsuit, Fontes responded: “In the meantime, screw them.”
The former U.S. attorney invoked the National Voter Registration Act in suing Fontes to obtain data sought by Republicans, arguing that the request concerned her “investigation into Arizona’s compliance with federal election law,” court documents show.
In the Rhode Island case, a DOJ attorney acknowledged that the department was seeking unredacted voter roll information to share with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to verify citizenship, The Guardian reported.
According to what was mentioned, The DOJ has shared voter information it has obtained with DHS, which operates a database to verify citizenship status called “Systematic Alien Verification for Obtaining Benefits” (SAVE).. The system is designed to display a person’s immigration status using the last four digits of their social security number.
The country’s Constitution says that states have the exclusive authority to review their electoral rolls. The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), implemented in 1993, affirmed that right, requiring states to make a “reasonable effort” to ensure that ineligible voters do not cast their vote.
So far, they seem to be doing a good job. Voter fraud is extremely rare. Even voter rolls reviewed with the Keep data group show there are likely very few potential violations among tens of millions of voters.
However, the SAVE program has targeted legal voters. According to an analysis by the Brennan Center, the results are often based on information that is outdated or incomplete.
“This increases the risk that state officials will conduct erroneous voter roll purges and disenfranchise eligible people,” Jasleen Singh and Spencer Reynolds, both senior attorneys at the Brennan Center, wrote in the report.
“SAVE could also be misleading, either by incorrectly identifying someone as a non-citizen or by failing to confirm their immigration status, thereby fueling false conspiracy theories about the integrity of US elections.”
Given the little justification for collecting this data, some specialists also fear that the information could help the administration manipulate the elections in its favor.
“The federal government does not have the right to collect information on hundreds of millions of American voters unless Congress has authorized it,” David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research and an expert on policies related to the alteration of electoral rolls, declared in January.
“This appears to be more focused on spreading false information about problems with our electoral system and preparing for elections that candidates sympathetic to the president could lose.”
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