Trump DOJ sues Idaho as even red states resist voter data demands

By Yunior Rivas

FILE - Idaho Secretary of State candidate Phil McGrane laughs as he talks with an attendee during the Republican Party primary celebration in Boise, Idaho, on May 17, 2022. McGrane, who is the Ada County clerk and the likely next secretary of state, says investigating complaints related to elections is important to maintain voter confidence that America's system for choosing its leaders works. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, File)

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Idaho Wednesday after the state refused to hand over sensitive voter registration data — the latest example of resistance to the Trump administration’s voter roll crusade extending into strongly Republican states.

The lawsuit targets Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (R), who recently declined to provide an unredacted copy of the state’s voter registration database, despite months of federal pressure.

Idaho is far from alone.

With this latest filing, DOJ has now sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia in its effort to obtain unredacted voter rolls — and a growing share of those targets are GOP-led.

At the same time, about 17 red states have entered into formal or informal agreements with the department to share their voter data, creating a widening split among GOP election officials.

The case comes as the department presses forward with its voter roll campaign despite mounting setbacks in court. 

Federal judges have already dismissed similar lawsuits in California, Michigan and Oregon, rejecting the DOJ’s expansive interpretation of its authority. The department appealed all three rulings.

The growing number of lawsuits against Republican-led states is particularly notable.

States including Utah, Kentucky and West Virginia — all led by GOP officials — have also been sued in recent weeks after declining to provide unredacted voter data.

At the same time, other Republican-led states, like Ohio, have chosen to hand over voter registration data, defending the move as ensuring election integrity.

In Idaho, DOJ is again invoking a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to argue it has broad authority to demand election records.

The DOJ contends that when a state refuses such a demand, courts should play only a limited role — essentially ordering compliance without examining the underlying justification.

In this type of proceeding, the complaint states, the attorney general need only show that a written request was made and denied, and “the court does not adjudicate any further.”

Federal officials demanded the database “with all fields,” including names, addresses, birthdates and either driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of Social Security numbers.

McGrane initially appeared willing to cooperate, even signing a data-sharing agreement last fall, according to DOJ’s complaint.

But in February, he reversed course, concluding there was no clear legal requirement to provide the information and citing concerns about voter privacy.

DOJ is now asking a federal court to order Idaho to turn over the data within five days, along with any additional election records it requests.