Trump Administration Sued Over Alleged Illegal Collection of Voter Data

The Trump administration is facing a lawsuit alleging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) illegally collected sensitive voter data from at least 47 states. The complaint, filed in federal court in Washington D.C., claims the DHS obtained voter files and combined them with commercial datasets, violating federal safeguards and the privacy rights of millions of Americans.

The lawsuit was brought by the League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the League of United Latin American Citizens. It asserts that the DHS's data collection efforts ignore federal privacy protections. This legal challenge is the latest in a series of actions related to the administration's efforts to combat alleged noncitizen voting.

Federal courts have previously rejected administration attempts to compel states to surrender voter information. The new suit alleges that the administration has obtained and processed voter records from 47 states, despite officials in 30 states having refused previous federal requests for such data. The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the administration's collection of voter data illegal, block the DHS policy, and order the agency to delete and cease using the data it has already acquired.

The administration has argued that noncitizen voting poses a significant threat to election integrity, though studies and prosecutions have indicated that documented instances of noncitizens voting are rare. The administration has also pursued a greater federal role in voter eligibility and election administration, areas traditionally managed by states.

In a related action, the Justice Department sued California election officials, alleging they did not act swiftly enough to review names identified by the federal government as potentially belonging to noncitizens. The lawsuit sought to prevent mail-in ballots from these individuals from being counted unless their eligibility could be confirmed. California officials stated they were given only 48 hours to review approximately 20,000 names and criticized the federal government for not providing the evidence or methodology behind its claims. The Justice Department countered that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had conducted a review and determined with high confidence that about 20,000 individuals on California's voter rolls were likely noncitizens.