Trump Administration Has Lost 21 of Its Voter Roll Lawsuits

Washington — The Justice Department has lost 21 of the lawsuits it filed against states seeking their complete voter registration lists, part of a Trump administration effort that has reached nearly all 50 states.

The administration sent letters to most states last year requesting unredacted electronic copies of statewide voter rolls. Those files include voters' birthdates, addresses, partial Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers.

The Justice Department has argued the data is needed to determine whether states are complying with two federal laws, the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act, which require states to maintain accurate voter rolls.

A number of states handed over publicly available versions of their rolls but declined to provide the complete lists. The department responded by suing 30 states and the District of Columbia to force them to turn over the data.

Federal judges have rejected 21 of those cases. A judge dismissed the department's initial case against Georgia because it was filed in the wrong court, and government lawyers have since refiled it. The department voluntarily dismissed its suit against Oklahoma after the state agreed to hand over its voter registration list.

Cases remain pending in Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Nevada, Utah, Vermont and Washington.

The Justice Department has appealed most of the dismissals. One appeals court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, has upheld a lower court ruling that rejected the administration's attempt to obtain Michigan's voter rolls.

The push for the unredacted lists is part of a broader effort by President Trump to exert more control over federal elections. He has signed two executive orders on elections, both of which have been blocked by the courts. The second, announced in March, requires the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service to compile and maintain lists of U.S. citizens eligible to vote.

Trump is also pressing Congress to pass a package of voting regulations called the SAVE America Act, which would significantly curtail mail-in voting and impose new voter ID requirements.

The president has long argued that mail-in voting leads to widespread fraud, though he has not presented evidence to support the claim. He has also said Democratic-run states allow noncitizens to vote. It is a federal crime for noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections.