The Trump administration is attempting to force states to hand over voters' sensitive, private data. The U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) actions threaten the privacy and security of voters’ personal information and risk its misuse by the federal government for mass disenfranchisement.
Last December, the federal government sued the State of Maine for refusing to hand over unredacted voter data. We filed a friend-of-the-court brief and argued in person before the federal court in Maine. We urged the court to dismiss the case and highlighted how DOJ's demands violate federal voting rights law and state privacy law. Earlier this summer, the district court dismissed the lawsuit, blocking DOJ's attempted overreach.
But then the federal government appealed its loss to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
This week, we filed a new friend-of-the-court brief urging the appeals court to uphold the district court's ruling. This brief argues the administration is not stating the true purpose for requesting the sensitive voter data and intends to unlawfully construct a national voter database to disenfranchise voters.
Our work is part of a national strategy to protect voter information. Nationally, the ACLU has engaged in 26 similar cases in other states, and secretaries of state across the political spectrum are protecting their voter rolls from this attempted overreach.
Our brief details “that the supposed purpose offered by the United States is pretextual,” outlining attempts by DOJ to gain unprecedented access and control over state voter lists. It cites “government documents [indicating] how the United States ultimately plans to use voters’ sensitive personal data: to assert control over voting eligibility in the states, to order the disenfranchisement of voters, and potentially to contest the results of state-run elections.” The brief further explains that “[c]onsistent with extensive public reporting,” the government “has now admitted in open court that it will use and share the gathered information with agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, thus potentially facilitating immigration investigations.”
The unredacted voter file includes many sensitive details about Maine voters, including birth dates, driver’s license numbers, and parts of Social Security numbers. Maine voters shared this information with the state so they could exercise their right to vote, but they never agreed to let the federal government abuse that information to silence their voices.
The Trump administration’s attempted overreach and plans to create a national voter database clearly violate the U.S. Constitution, federal voting rights law, and state privacy law. Maine elections are free, safe, and secure – and we’ll keep fighting to protect our fundamental voting rights even as the president continues to weaponize DOJ against the American people.
Read more about this case and see relevant court documents here.
