PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Justice Department said Tuesday that it has sued Oregon and Maine for failing to turn over their voter registration lists, marking the first lawsuits the department has brought against states in its wide-ranging effort to get detailed voter data.
The department said the states were violating federal law by refusing to provide electronic copies of state voter registration lists and information regarding ineligible voters. It added that Oregon also did not provide information on how
it maintains its voter list.
Oregon and Maine are among at least 26 states that the department has asked for voter registration rolls in recent months, according to an Associated Press tally.
“States simply cannot pick and choose which federal laws they will comply with, including our voting laws, which ensure that all American citizens have equal access to the ballot in federal elections,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a news release.
Spokespeople for the secretary of state's offices in Oregon and Maine said Tuesday they had not yet received notice of the lawsuit. A message left with the Justice Department requesting a copy of the court filing was not immediately returned.
Some states have declined or demurred on the voter registration data requests, citing their own state laws or the Justice Department’s failure to fulfill federal Privacy Act obligations. Federal officials have followed up by sending additional letters demanding the voter data on short deadlines.
Several states have sent redacted versions of their voter lists that are available to the public, but the Justice Department has on multiple occasions expressly demanded copies that contain personally identifiable information, including voter names, birth dates, addresses and driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers.
The department also threatened to sue Minnesota and California.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has been among the most vocal secretaries of state to decline to share the information. The Justice Department issued a second request for the state's voter data in August after she declined its initial request, her office said last week in a statement.
“Maine has some of the best elections in the nation," Bellows said Tuesday in a statement. "It is absurd that the Department of Justice is targeting our state when Republican and Democratic Secretaries all across the country are fighting back against this federal abuse of power just like we are.”
Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read had similar comments Tuesday.
“If the President wants to use the DOJ to go after his political opponents and undermine our elections, I look forward to seeing them in court," he said in a statement. "I stand by my oath to the people of Oregon, and I will protect their rights and privacy.”
The Justice Department's outreach has raised alarm among some election officials because the agency doesn’t have the constitutional authority to run elections. That power is granted to states and Congress. Federal law also protects the sharing of individual data with the federal government.
The department has said it needs to access detailed voter data to ensure election officials are following federal election laws. Election officials have disputed that and raised concerns that federal officials are trying to use the sensitive data for other purposes, such as searching for potential noncitizens on the rolls.
In a separate request, the Justice Department in August requested access to voting machines used in the 2020 election in Missouri. It's not clear why the department made the inquiry, but it came just two months after President Donald Trump called for a special prosecutor to investigate that year's election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
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Swenson reported from New York.
