The Justice Department under President Donald Trump is assembling what officials describe as a national voter database, seeking individual voting records from more than 30 states as part of an effort to investigate claims that undocumented immigrants illegally vote in U.S. elections, according to a report by The New York Times.
Federal prosecutors and the department’s civil rights division have sent formal data requests to state election officials in at least 16 Republican-dominated states, including Alabama, Texas and Mississippi, as well as to officials in Democratic-led and swing states such as New York and Pennsylvania. The requests seek detailed information about registered voters, including names and addresses, and are intended to be compared with Department of Homeland Security records to identify voters with an immigration status listed by federal agents.
A Justice Department spokesperson, Gates McGavick, told The New York Times that "enforcing the nation’s elections laws is a priority in this administration and in the civil rights division," and that the effort is meant to "ensure that states have proper voter registration procedures and programs to maintain clean voter rolls containing only eligible voters in federal elections." The department is using both its criminal and civil rights divisions to pursue the records, the newspaper reported.
Former Biden administration officials and state election administrators have voiced concern about the scope of the requests and the potential for misuse of personal data. Justin R. Erickson, general counsel for Minnesota’s secretary of state, wrote in a letter to the DOJ that, "Equally concerning is the possibility that the D.O.J. will use the data inappropriately and the fact that the D.O.J. does not appear to have complied with the necessary legal requirements to obtain or use data on several million people." The letter was sent last month, according to The Times.
Observers noted that previous administrations had refrained from creating a centralized federal voter database out of concern for privacy and the potential for political abuse. "Nobody has ever done anything like this," said former Biden-era Justice Department official Justin Levitt, as quoted in the report.
State officials have resisted some requests for sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers and driver’s license data. Several states pushed back on turning over individual-level records to the federal government, citing legal limits and privacy concerns. Last week, a South Carolina judge blocked the state from releasing private voter information to the DOJ, delivering a judicial check on the department’s efforts.
The Justice Department has said the comparison of voter rolls with DHS data is intended to determine whether noncitizens or unauthorized immigrants are registered and voting in federal elections. The Times report did not quantify how many states had complied or how many records the department had obtained, and state responses have varied.
Civil liberties groups and Democratic officials warned that compiling such a database could be used to undermine confidence in future elections. DOJ officials maintain the work is part of routine enforcement of federal election laws and voter-registration integrity. The effort is ongoing and has prompted new litigation and political debate over federal access to state voter records and the balance between election security and individual privacy.