States Push Back Against Trump DOJ Lawsuits Seeking Millions of Voters’ Private Data

The U.S. Department of Justice sued six more states this week in its escalating effort to force election officials to hand over unredacted voter information. State election leaders say the DOJ’s sweeping demand for voters’ names, addresses, birth dates and identification numbers threatens their personal privacy, state sovereignty and the security of U.S. elections.

The new lawsuits, filed against Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, sparked immediate backlash from officials who say they are determined to uphold the law in protecting voters’ information, not surrender it.

In Washington, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs’ office said the DOJ’s aggressive push has been riddled with sloppiness and confusion.

“Our knowledge of the lawsuit and its contents have predominantly come from media reporting,” the office said. “It was brought to our attention that a filing was attempted Tuesday, but the complaint was incorrectly filed by the administration.”

Hobbs’ office said the DOJ chose to alert reporters before even following proper federal legal procedures.

“We would expect the U.S. Department of Justice to know how to properly file a lawsuit in federal court,” they added. “We would also expect them to follow official procedures of serving the complaint prior to reaching out to media outlets considering the important nature of voter data.”

As of Friday, Washington says it has yet to be served by the DOJ — and still hasn’t received answers.

“We never received a response,” Hobbs’ office said, referring to the state’s request for an explanation of what Trump’s DOJ intends to do with voters’ protected information.

From Vermont, Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas said the state already maintains some of the country’s most accurate voter rolls and secure elections, and sees no legitimate justification for Trump’s DOJ to seize private data from Vermonters.

“We are following Vermont law and we will continue to follow Vermont law,” Copeland Hanzas told Democracy Docket. “We don’t really understand why it is that the federal government thinks that they could do a better job of maintaining the accuracy of states’ voter rolls than we do ourselves.”

She said Vermont’s systems are proven, rigorous and locally managed — everything the DOJ’s request is not.

“They certainly don’t have the systems and the processes in place that we have developed over years,” Copeland Hanzas said. “We don’t have any assurance that the federal government has a better system — they certainly haven’t shown it. States maintain these processes and don’t easily give up the duty of protecting their own citizens’ information.”

The DOJ’s sweeping demand raises deeper concerns about what the Trump administration is ultimately trying to construct. Copeland Hanzas warned that building any kind of national voter database would be a massive undertaking that only Congress could authorize — and certainly not something forced through rushed litigation.

“We have a very dispersed way of running elections in this country, and indeed in our state, and there has never been a centralized entity who has legal responsibility to do any of that work,” she said. “If the DOJ is trying to accomplish a central database of American voters, I don’t think that this is the way — certainly not flying by the seat of our pants here in a couple of months.”

Meanwhile, Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore framed Trump’s DOJ suit as both unconstitutional and dangerous.

“I denied the Department of Justice’s unsubstantiated request for Rhode Islanders’ private information because the administration of elections falls under the purview of the states under the United States Constitution,” Amore said. “One of my most important responsibilities as the chief state election official is safeguarding the data privacy of Rhode Islanders.”

Amore further emphasized that Rhode Island will not allow the Trump administration to compromise the privacy of its voters or security of its elections, saying “I will continue to fight to protect it.”

In New Mexico, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver’s office said the lawsuit reflects a pattern of election interference by the Trump administration.

“New Mexico’s election administration is the most secure, accurate, and voter-focused in the entire nation,” her office said. “Secretary Toulouse Oliver will not compromise the safety of New Mexico’s voter data.”

Her office has already provided all public information federal law requires, they said.

“They are seeking access to sensitive data that’s simply not needed to comply with voter list maintenance and which is protected by state law,” her office explained. “Our office will always vigorously defend New Mexico’s voters and the integrity of our election system.”

New Mexico urged that the stakes are not theoretical, the safety of voters’ private data and the integrity of the state’s election system are being repeatedly targeted by Trump and his allies.

“This lawsuit is a continuation of the Trump administration’s assault on free and fair elections as they want access to New Mexicans’ personal private voter data,” the secretary’s office added. “And the weaponized Justice Department is now suing Secretary Toulouse Oliver over it.”

Across the states — fourteen have been sued by the DOJ thus far — election officials repeatedly shared the same concerns: Trump’s DOJ has failed to justify its sweeping demands, disregarded state privacy laws and mishandled its own filings. 

What the DOJ is asking for, they say, would create unprecedented risk for millions of voters while undermining the constitutional structure that places election administration squarely in state hands.

As the lawsuits pile up, so has the resistance. 

Officials from both parties have refused to turn over sensitive voter information, insisting they will protect the data entrusted to them — no matter how many lawsuits the Trump administration intends to file.