Judges in Maine and Wisconsin reject DOJ efforts to obtain voter rolls

Federal judges in Maine and Wisconsin dismissed U.S. Department of Justice lawsuits on Thursday that sought to compel the states to turn over detailed voter registration information, according to the court decisions described in a report from Portland, Maine. The rulings marked another setback for the Trump administration’s effort to obtain highly sensitive election data from states.

In Wisconsin, U.S. District Judge James Pederson said the voter registration list maintained by the state is not the kind of record that can be requested under the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the administration argued. The decision rejected that legal theory in the DOJ’s effort to gain the detailed voter rolls.

In Maine, Chief U.S. District Judge Lance Walker granted a state motion to dismiss and described the government’s claim as “half-hearted,” court language said. Walker’s ruling emphasized the structure of election administration under the U.S. Constitution and the role states play in regulating elections.

The judge in Maine wrote that states are the primary regulators and administrators of elections for federal office, unless Congress passes legislation that preempts that framework. The ruling located responsibility for running elections with states and rejected the federal push for access to detailed registration data in the case before the court.

The DOJ’s cases are part of a broader campaign described as involving at least 30 states and the District of Columbia. The lawsuits seek detailed voter data that includes dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers, according to the report.

Advocates and election officials portrayed the decisions as protecting voter privacy. Bianca Shaw, state director of Common Cause Wisconsin, called the ruling “a massive victory for voter privacy and a rejection of federal overreach,” adding that the decision helps prevent what she described as an unauthorized national database that could be exploited by hackers and used for intimidation.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat and a Trump opponent who is running for governor, said the decision affirms that states, not the federal government, are in charge of elections and voting. Bellows said in a statement that Trump and the DOJ may continue trying to interfere with elections run by the states, and that Maine would not allow it.

In Wisconsin, Common Cause, the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, Forward Latino and three voters intervened in opposition to the government’s attempt to obtain Wisconsin’s voter rolls. Doug Poland, director of litigation for Law Forward, said the Trump administration’s efforts were “thinly-masked” attempts to manipulate and subvert future elections, describing the litigation as dressed up in the language of voting-rights enforcement.

The rulings were described as the latest defeats in the administration’s attempts to force states to hand over voter rolls. The report said judges rejected similar requests in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Rhode Island, and that in Georgia a judge dismissed a DOJ lawsuit filed in the wrong city, prompting the government to refile elsewhere.

Officials with the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the rulings or a potential appeal. The case in Wisconsin was presided over by Pederson, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, while the Maine case was led by Walker, a Trump appointee.