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DOJ asks court to let it continue its voter roll purging program despite block
Democracy Docket • • nation
Key Points:
- The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) requested a federal court to allow it to continue collecting state voter roll data and comparing it with federal databases to identify alleged noncitizen voter registrations, despite a recent court block on this practice.
- The U.S. District Court of D.C. had blocked the DOJ's "Voter List Maintenance Policy" on October 9, citing concerns over the use of the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE database and the legality of the data collection.
- DOJ argues that its actions are authorized under election laws and the Civil Rights Act, claiming the court incorrectly ruled against its authority, although DOJ has lost 26 lawsuits seeking unredacted voter rolls from states.
- The court found DOJ's data requests mandatory due to legal threats in the letters sent to states, while DOJ contends the requests were voluntary and not final agency actions subject to review.
- The ongoing legal dispute highlights tensions between federal election oversight efforts under the Trump administration and state protections of voter information privacy.
