Judge thwarts Trump administration’s attempt to access Arizona voter rolls

An attempt by the Trump administration to gain access to Arizona’s detailed voter records was thwarted by the courts on Tuesday, when a federal judge dismissed the US justice department’s lawsuit against the state.

The ruling marks the latest legal setback in an unprecedented nationwide effort by the administration before the midterm elections to collect sensitive information about tens of millions of Americans. The DoJ has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking to force release of the data, which includes dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial social security numbers.

The US district judge Susan Brnovich, a Trump appointee, ruled that Arizona’s statewide voter registration list was “not a document subject to request by the Attorney General” under federal law. The judge dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice because, she wrote, “amendment would be legally futile”.

At least 13 states have either handed the information over voluntarily or promised to provide their detailed voter registration lists to the department, according to the Brennan Center for Justice and Associated Press reporting: Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

In addition to Arizona, judges have ruled against the administration in Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Oregon. In Georgia, a judge dismissed a DoJ lawsuit because it had been filed in the wrong city, prompting the government to refile elsewhere.

“This moment is a win for voter privacy,” the Arizona secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, said in a statement, noting that the database the federal government requested contained sensitive personal information. “This is now the sixth federal court to reach the same conclusion,. Our offices will continue to defend the privacy of Arizona voters against federal overreach.”

From the onset of his interaction with the DoJ over the voter rolls, Fontes vehemently pushed back, answering a series of requests from the administration leading up to the lawsuit. When a justice department official announced on the social media site X that the department had filed a lawsuit, Fontes responded bluntly: “In the meantime, pound sand.”

The then US attorney general cited the National Voter Registration Act when she sued Fontes for the data, claiming the request pertained to her “investigation into Arizona compliance with federal election law”, court documents show. In the Rhode Island case, a justice department attorney acknowledged that the department was seeking unredacted voter roll information so it could be shared with the Department of Homeland Security to check citizenship status.

The justice department has reportedly shared the voter information it has obtained with the Department of Homeland Security, which operates a database to check citizenship status called “Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements” (Save). The system is designed to show a person’s immigration status using the last four digits of their social security number.

States have the sole authority to screen their voter rolls under the constitution. The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) implemented in 1993 upheld that right, requiring only that states make a “reasonable effort” to ensure ineligible voters aren’t casting a ballot.

So far, they seem to be doing a good job. Voter fraud is exceedingly rare. Even voter rolls screened using the Save database show there are likely very few potential violations out of tens of millions of voters.

The Save program has, however, flagged legal voters. The results are often based on outdated or incomplete information, according to an analysis from the Brennan Center. “This increases the risks that state officials will carry out erroneous voter purges and disenfranchise eligible voters,” Jasleen Singh and Spencer Reynolds, both senior counsel at Brennan, wrote in the brief. “SAVE could also mislead, either because it incorrectly identifies someone as a noncitizen or fails to confirm immigration status, fueling false conspiracy theories about the integrity of US elections.”

With little justification for seeking the data, some experts are also concerned that the information could help the administration undermine elections in their favor.

“The federal government does not have the right to collect information on hundreds of millions of American voters unless Congress has authorized it,” David Becker, the executive director for the Center for Election Innovation & Research, and an expert in policies dealing with monitoring voter rolls, said in January. “This appears to be more focused on amplifying false narratives about problems with our election system and preparation for elections that candidates aligned with the president might lose.”

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sam Levine contributed reporting