Trump DOJ Sues States Over Voter Data

The U.S. Department of Justice under the Trump administration has filed lawsuits against eight states — New Hampshire, California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Maine and Pennsylvania — after state officials refused to turn over complete statewide voter-registration lists. DOJ lawyers say federal laws including the Help America Vote Act, the National Voter Registration Act and the Civil Rights Act require access to detailed voter records — including partial Social Security numbers and driver’s-license numbers — to assess list maintenance and guard against fraud; the push has been led publicly by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Civil Rights Division officials. State officials and secretaries of state have refused to disclose sensitive identifiers, citing state privacy laws and the federal Privacy Act, and some (for example Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs) have said they will provide only publicly disclosable fields such as names, addresses, years of birth and voting history. Voting-rights groups, some election officials and several states have called the DOJ requests unprecedented and an overreach, warning about potential misuse, harassment or improper removal of eligible voters. The resulting court battles will decide whether federal election-law enforcement can override state privacy protections and could shape oversight of voter rolls ahead of the 2026 midterms and the final months of the Trump administration.