Washington — A federal judge on Friday rejected the Justice Department’s effort to force Rhode Island to turn over sensitive voter information, dealing another blow to the Trump administration’s attempts to gain access to state voter registration lists.
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, who was appointed by President Trump in his first term, granted a request from Rhode Island officials to dismiss a Justice Department lawsuit that sought the state’s unredacted voter rolls, which contain personal information about residents registered to vote.
McElroy wrote in a 14-page decision that the Justice Department’s effort was a “fishing expedition” that was not authorized by federal election laws. She also denied a motion from the Trump administration that sought to force Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore to hand over the voter data.
Amore cheered the decision in a statement and said it affirms the state’s position that the Justice Department has no legal right to the state’s private voter information.
“Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible,” he said. “The executive branch seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states. But the power of our democratic republic, built on three, coequal branches of government, is clearer than ever before. When the Trump Administration tries to act superior to those other branches to violate the rights of Rhode Island voters, we will challenge it. And the courts will uphold the rule of law.”
The dismissal of the case in Rhode Island marks the fifth loss for the Justice Department in its efforts to access state voter registration lists. Judges have also dismissed lawsuits seeking voter registration information from California, Oregon, Michigan and Massachusetts.
The Justice Department has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia after officials in those places refused to hand over their voter rolls, which contain names, birth dates, drivers’ license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
The Trump administration has claimed it needs that information in order to ensure states are complying with two federal laws that require states to undertake efforts to maintain accurate voter registration lists: the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.
But McElroy, the judge, wrote in her decision that the government’s demand for Rhode Island’s voter data lacked “any factual allegations” suggesting that the state may be violating requirements for maintaining voter registration lists. The Justice Department’s “purpose stated in the Attorney General’s demand — purportedly, to ensure compliance with the NVRA and HAVA — does not plausibly relate to individual voting rights,” she said.
The Justice Department first sought Rhode Island’s voter registration list in September. In response to the request, Amore offered to give the government a copy of the state’s publicly available list, but declined to turn over the unredacted information. He argued that the data was private and said federal laws cited by the Justice Department did not authorize the demand for the state’s voter rolls.
The Justice Department had not previously acknowledged that it intends to provide voter information from the states to the Department of Homeland Security for immigration and law enforcement purposes. But CBS News reported last month that the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security were close to an arrangement on how the data would be shared, and a government lawyer then acknowledged to the Rhode Island court plans to share the information so it can be run through a Homeland Security database to see if noncitizens are registered to vote.
Mr. Trump often claims that noncitizens are voting in U.S. elections, even though it is a federal crime to do so and instances of noncitizen voting are rare. He has pushed the Senate to pass legislation, called the SAVE America Act, which would require Americans to show proof of citizenship in-person to register to vote in federal elections and implement photo ID requirements for voting. The House approved the plan in February, but it is unlikely to clear the GOP-led Senate, where most legislation requires 60 votes to advance.
Mr. Trump also signed an executive order last year that would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, among other changes, but key parts of the directive have been blocked by the courts.
