Trump Justice Department says it sued Oregon, Maine for not turning over voter data

The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday it has sued Oregon and Maine for rejecting demands that the states turn over troves of personal voter information. 

The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office said it hasn’t seen a court filing, and no documents have yet shown up on the court record database PACER. But in a press release, the Justice Department said it has sued the states of Oregon and Maine, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows for failing to provide electronic copies of statewide voter registration lists and information regarding voter list maintenance procedures.

In a statement, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said states can’t pick and choose which federal laws they follow. 

“American citizens have a right to feel confident in the integrity of our electoral process, and the refusal of certain states to protect their citizens against vote dilution will result in legal consequences,” Dhillon said. 

Before joining the Justice Department, Dhillon was a legal adviser to President Donald Trump’s failed 2020 campaign. Her law firm worked unsuccessfully to overturn election results in the 2022 midterms in key states, including Arizona. 

Read, a Democrat elected last year with promises to defend Oregon’s pioneering vote-by-mail system, said he looked forward to fighting the case in court. Oregon is already suing the federal government over Trump’s attempts to end mail voting, along with 36 other lawsuits.  

“If the president wants to use the DOJ to go after his political opponents and undermine our elections, I look forward to seeing them in court,” Read said. “I stand by my oath to the people of Oregon, and I will protect their rights and privacy.”

The Justice Department said it’s alleging that Read violated federal law by refusing to share an unredacted electronic copy of the state’s voter registration list, provide information on the state’s voter list maintenance program or disclose registration information for any ineligible voters.

Last month, Read told Justice Department officials that turning over the data they requested — including the full name, date of birth, residential address and driver’s license number or partial Social Security number for all of Oregon’s more than 3 million registered voters — would violate Oregonians’ constitutional right to privacy. 

Instead, he said, the federal government is free to file a records request and pay a $500 fee for a copy of the statewide voter list that includes names, addresses, political party and birth year, but not a voter’s birthday, Social Security number or driver’s license number. 

He maintained that the Justice Department’s request sought more information than required by federal laws, including the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002. He said providing that data would certainly violate state laws.

The Justice Department sought information about anyone removed from voter rolls because they were determined not to be a citizen, deemed incompetent by a court or convicted of a felony. Oregon last year identified more than 1,500 people erroneously added to voter rolls through no fault of their own because of clerical errors at the Motor Vehicle Services Division, which since 2016 has automatically forwarded information of U.S. citizens who obtain or update driver’s licenses so they can be registered to vote. 

Oregon’s 1987 sanctuary law, the first in the nation, bars state and local officials from providing information or resources for the federal government to enforce immigration laws without a court order signed by a judge. The Department of Justice is sharing voter roll data with the Department of Homeland Security, Stateline reported last week.

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE