NEW YORK (AP) – Requests received letters, emails and phone calls. Details vary, but goals are consistent. The U.S. Department of Justice is stepping up its efforts to obtain voter data and other election information from states.
The Voting section of the department for the past three months I’ve requested it Copying voter registration lists from at least 15 state election administrators, according to Associated Press Tally. Of these, nine are Democrats, five are Republicans, and one is a bipartisan committee.
In Colorado, the department requested “all records” related to the 2024 election, and state records held since the 2020 election.
Department lawyers contacted officials from at least seven states to propose a meeting on the creation of information sharing agreements related to cases of voting or election fraud. The idea they say in email is for the state to help the department enforce the law.
As states have constitutional authority to hold elections, and as federal law protects individual data sharing with the government, the extraordinarily vast outreach has sparked vigilance among some election authorities.
It’s also a signal conversion of involvement in the Justice Department election under President Donald Trump. The department has historically focused on protecting access to ballot boxes. It’s like today Take action To crack down on voter fraud and non-citizen votes rare However, it was the subject of many years of false claims from Trump and his allies.
Departmental actions come with broader efforts by the administration Investigating past elections It will affect the mid-term 2026. Republican presidents have I called a special prosecutor To investigate the 2020 election in which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden Incorrectly claim He won. Trump also pushed Texas Republicans Redraw map of parliament Create more house sheets that are suitable for your GOP.
The Justice Department is usually not “engaged on fishing expeditions” to find laws that were potentially breached and traditionally independent of the president, said David Becker, a former departmental lawyer who leads the nonprofit center for election innovation and research.
“It seems to be behaving differently now,” he said.
The department emailed “No Comments” to a list of questions submitted by the Associated Press for further details on communications with state officials.
Requests for states vary, some are specific
Election Offices, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Utah, Wisconsin We confirmed that the AP had received a letter from the voting section requesting a statewide voter registration list. At least one Oklahoma received the request over the phone.
Many requests included basic questions about procedures states use to comply with federal voting laws, such as how states can identify and remove duplicate voter registrations, deceased or other eligible voters.
Specific questions were more state-specific or referenced data points or perceived inconsistencies from a recent survey from the US Election Assistance Commission.
The Department of Justice already has it He filed a lawsuit It claims to the North Carolina State Election Commission that it failed to comply with some of the federal aid American voting laws related to voter registration records.
More inquiries are underway
There are signs that departmental outreach is not being done. NASS spokesperson Maria Benson told the National Association of State Secretaries “We will ultimately contact all states.”
The organization asked the department to attend a virtual meeting of the Election Commission to answer questions about the letter, Benson said. Some officials have raised concerns about how voter data will be used and protected.
Election officials in at least four California counties (Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and San Francisco) thought the Department of Justice had sent a letter asking for voter roll records. The letter seeks the number of people removed from the role for being non-citizens, and for their voting records, date of birth and ID numbers.
Officials from Arizona, Connecticut, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Wisconsin confirmed that the Associated Press received emails from two departmental lawyers requesting calls about a potential “information sharing agreement.”
The goal was for the state to provide the government with information on cases of election fraud to help the Justice Department “enforce federal election laws and protect the integrity of federal elections,” according to several copies of emails reviewed by the Associated Press. One of the people who sent the email was a senior criminal attorney.
The email mentioned Trump’s march Presidential Orders on Electionssome of which directs the Attorney General to bring information sharing agreements with state election officials to the “maximum possible range.”
Skeptical state election officials evaluate how to reply
Election officials from several states that received requests for voter registration information have not responded. Some people said they are reviewing the enquiries.
Officials from several other states have provided the department with a public version of their voter registration list after certain personal information, such as social security numbers, due to a blackout. Elsewhere, state officials answered procedural questions from the Department of Justice, but refused to provide a voter list.
In Minnesota, Democrat Steve Simon’s office said federal agencies do not legally grant information.
In a July 25 letter to the Justice Department’s voting section, Simon’s advisor Justin Erickson said the list “contains sensitive personal identification information about millions of individuals.” He said he has an obligation not to disclose information from state law from the state-wide list unless expressly required by law.
In a recent letter, a state Republican lawmaker called on Simon to follow federal demands as a way to “protect Minnesotans’ rights to vote.”
Democrat Shenna Bellows, Democrat, Secretary of State for Maine, said the administration’s request was beyond federal boundaries and the state would not meet it. She said doing so would violate voter privacy.
The department said, “Just because they want you won’t know everything about you,” Bellows said.
Some Justice Department requests are questionable, lawyers say
Justin Levitt, former assistant attorney general who teaches at Loyola Law School, says there is nothing the Department of Justice requests or provides information about state procedures that are essentially wrong with the states that are providing them.
But the department’s demand for voter registration data is even more problematic, he said. It is based on the Privacy Act of 1974 and provides strict guidelines for federal data collection. If the government is seeking personally identifiable information about an individual, it must issue a notice to the federal register and notify the appropriate Congressional committee.
Becker said there is no federal law that forces states to comply with sensitive personal data requests relating to residents. He added that outreach on information sharing agreements is largely harmless, but the involvement of criminal lawyers could be deemed intimidating.
“You can understand how people worry,” he said.
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Field reported from Washington. Associated Press’ state government reporters contributed to reports across the country.
