A voter carries his son and goes to Oak Creek Town Hall to cast his ballot on Election Day, November 5, 2024, in Oak Creek, Colorado.
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The Justice Department has filed lawsuits against four more states as part of the Trump administration's attempt to gain access to sensitive voter data. The Justice Department is also suing one Georgia county seeking 2020 election records.
As part of its far-reaching litigation, the department has now filed suit against 18 states (mostly led by Democrats), as well as all the states that President Trump lost in the 2020 election.
For months, the Justice Department has required some states to provide complete, unredacted copies of their voter registration lists, including all driver's license numbers and portions of voters' Social Security numbers.
In court papers, the Justice Department says it wants this personal information to be used to verify states' compliance with federal laws maintaining accurate voter lists.
But most states refused, citing privacy restrictions.
The latest states to be sued are Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Nevada, the Justice Department said. announced Friday.
“At this Department of Justice, we will not allow states to compromise the integrity and efficiency of elections by refusing to comply with our federal election laws,” said Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. “If states fail in their duty to protect the integrity of the ballot, we will.”
In recent days, Dillon has also been vocal about the number of voter registrations completed. citizenship search tool is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
The Justice Department also filed a lawsuit against Fulton County in Georgia. The administration is trying to force local election officials to turn over all ballots and other records from the 2020 election, which Trump lost.
Fulton County has been at the center of unfounded claims by Trump and his allies that the 2020 election was rigged against him.
The Justice Department's lawsuit against Fulton County followed dismissal last month in a high-profile election interference case against Trump and his allies that was initially brought by district attorneys.
Officials in Colorado are among those resisting the administration's efforts to obtain voter data.
“We will not share sensitive voting information from Coloradans with Donald Trump. He has no legal right to this information,” said Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat running for attorney general. statement. “I will continue to defend our elections and democracy and hope to win this case.”
The Justice Department's lawsuit against Colorado comes after Trump announced on social media Thursday that he would pardon Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk who is serving a nine-year sentence after being convicted of providing unauthorized access to voting equipment, as part of efforts to investigate the 2020 election.
Trump's pardon seems primarily symbolicbecause Peters was convicted on state charges, not federal charges. The power to pardon state crimes rests with the governor of Colorado.
The Ministry of Justice has also in recent days announced Colorado Prison Review.
With reporting by NPR's Hansi Lo Wang and Benjamin Swasey.
