DOJ Is Said to Plan to Contact All 50 States on Voting Systems

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has said it intends to contact all 50 states about their compliance with federal voting law, a national association of state election officials told Democracy Docket. 

“As states recently began to receive letters on the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and Help America Vote Act (HAVA) from the U.S. Department of Justice, NASS staff reached out to hopefully provide members with additional information and context,” Maria Benson, a spokesperson for the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) said in a statement. “DOJ staff told NASS staff that all states would be contacted eventually on NVRA and HAVA matters. We passed along this information to members.”

“NASS staff has also asked DOJ to join a future NASS Elections Committee virtual meeting to address questions on these letters,” Benson added.

In recent weeks, letters sent by DOJ’s Civil Rights division to numerous states of all political stripes have asked for sensitive voter roll data, which DOJ has said is needed to ensure compliance with the NVRA and HAVA. The inquiries appear intended to gather information that could boost the Trump administration’s hunt for illegal voting.

“Most of the letters are very vague about why the DOJ is asking for this data,” Justin Levitt, a constitutional law scholar and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s Civil Rights division, as well as a former voting adviser to former President Joe Biden, told Democracy Docket. “Most of these letters cite generally HAVA and the NVRA. That’s not good enough. HAVA and the NVRA have very particular requirements for state and local jurisdictions.”

On Tuesday, Maine became the latest state to reveal it received a letter. Democracy Docket reached out to NASS after Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) said at a press conference that she had been informed by NASS that all 50 states were expected to receive the request. 

The DOJ declined to comment for this story.

Democracy Docket is tracking DOJ’s letters to states, as well as other moves by the department exemplifying its sharp shift away from protecting voting rights and toward tightening the rules for access to the ballot.

A few states, including Wisconsin and Rhode Island, have received letters from criminal prosecutors at DOJ, hunting for voter fraud.

Several states, including Maine, have rejected the request, while others have said they are reviewing it.

Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights division at DOJ, said at a congressional hearing Thursday that the department is aggressively enforcing list maintenance requirements in federal law. 

“We are active, we are opening investigations, we are seeking information from states,” said Dhillon, adding that various states have received requests for information about their “list maintenance requirements and failure thereof, [and] their noncompliance with the [NVRA].”