The campaign has drawn resistance primarily from Democratic-led states, whose officials say the federal requests violate both federal privacy law and their own state statutes — and who say they have been unable to get a clear explanation from the Justice Department of why it wants the data or how it plans to use it.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division sued Connecticut and Arizona this week for refusing to provide detailed voter information, bringing to 23 the number of states the department has targeted in a broad effort to obtain voter registration data from states that have declined to comply. The department has also filed suit against the District of Columbia.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, responded sharply on social media. “Pound sand,” he posted on X, saying the release of the voter records would violate state and federal law.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the department would “continue filing lawsuits to protect American elections,” saying accurate voter rolls are the “foundation of election integrity.”
What the Justice Department is seeking
The data requests vary by state. Some seek basic information about how states comply with federal voting laws. Others are more detailed and have referenced perceived inconsistencies identified in a survey from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
Among the personal information the department has sought in some requests: names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers.
State resistance
Officials in states that have declined to comply say the requests violate federal privacy law, which limits the sharing of individual data with the government, as well as their own state statutes restricting what voter information can be released publicly.
Most of the lawsuits target states led by Democrats, who have said they have been unable to get a clear answer about why the Justice Department wants the information or how it plans to use it.
Last fall, 10 Democratic secretaries of state sent a letter to the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security expressing concern after DHS said it had received voter data and would enter it into a federal program used to verify citizenship status.
Connecticut pushes back
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, said his state had tried to work cooperatively with the Justice Department to understand the basis for its request for voters’ personal information.
“Rather than communicating productively with us, they rushed to sue,” Tong said Tuesday, after the lawsuit was filed. He pledged to “vigorously defend the state against this meritless and deeply disappointing lawsuit.”
Connecticut, he said, “takes its obligations under federal laws very seriously.”
Two Republican state senators in Connecticut said they welcomed the federal action. They cited a recent absentee ballot scandal in Bridgeport, the state’s largest city, which they said had made Connecticut a “national punchline.”