The Justice Department on Tuesday sued Oregon and Maine for failing to provide electronic copies of their voter registration lists and related information, marking the first lawsuits the department has filed in a wider effort to obtain detailed voter data from states.
The department said the states violated federal law by refusing to furnish electronic voter lists and information about ineligible voters, and that Oregon also failed to provide details about how it maintains its voter registration system. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a news release, "States simply cannot pick and choose which federal laws they will comply with, including our voting laws, which ensure that all American citizens have equal access to the ballot in federal elections."
The suits come after the department sent requests for voter registration rolls to at least 26 states in recent months, according to an Associated Press tally. Federal officials have sought versions of state lists that include personally identifiable information such as voter names, birth dates, addresses and driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers. Some states provided publicly available, redacted lists; others declined or demurred, citing state laws or the department’s alleged failure to satisfy federal Privacy Act obligations. The Justice Department has issued additional letters to follow up, setting short deadlines and, in some cases, threatening litigation against other states including Minnesota and California.
Spokespeople for the secretary of state’s offices in Oregon and Maine said Tuesday they had not yet received formal notice of the lawsuits. The department did not immediately return a request for a copy of the court filing. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who has been among the most outspoken officials resisting the department’s requests, said in a statement, "Maine has some of the best elections in the nation. It is absurd that the Department of Justice is targeting our state when Republican and Democratic Secretaries all across the country are fighting back against this federal abuse of power just like we are."
Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read issued a similar rebuke, saying, "If the President wants to use the DOJ to go after his political opponents and undermine our elections, I look forward to seeing them in court. I stand by my oath to the people of Oregon, and I will protect their rights and privacy."
Justice Department officials have said the more detailed files are necessary to ensure that state and local election administrators are complying with federal voting laws and to assist in identifying ineligible voters. State election officials and privacy advocates have questioned the scope of the demands and raised concerns about the protection and potential use of sensitive personal information, including whether the data could be used to search for noncitizens on voter rolls.
The dispute follows other recent federal inquiries into election administration. In August, the Justice Department requested access to voting machines used in Missouri in the 2020 election, an inquiry whose purpose was not publicly explained. That request came two months after former President Donald Trump renewed calls for a special prosecutor to investigate the contested 2020 presidential election results.
The lawsuits mark an escalation in tensions between federal authorities and state election officials over who controls and can access voter data. Constitutional authority to run elections resides with states and Congress, and many secretaries of state and other election administrators have asserted that state law or privacy protections limit what information they may share with federal agencies. The outcome of these lawsuits could shape the balance of federal oversight and state control over voter registration information ahead of upcoming election cycles.
Legal timelines, court filings and next steps were not immediately available. The department has previously sent aggressive deadlines in its outreach to states; whether the litigation will remain narrowly focused on the specified electronic lists or expand into broader questions of data handling and federal authority is likely to be decided in the courts.
Reporting from Portland, Ore., contributed to this story.