Justice Department Sues 6 More States for Withholding Voter Rolls

Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington state are accused of hindering federal oversight intended to stop election fraud.

"I voted" stickers at a polling place at the Eastern Market on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 5, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The Justice Department on Tuesday filed lawsuits against six additional states for refusing to turn over their statewide voter registration lists in response to formal requests.

The complaints, filed in federal courts, allege the states violated provisions under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002, and the Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1960.

The lawsuit accuses Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington state of hindering federal oversight intended to stop election fraud and ensure accuracy.

“Accurate voter rolls are the cornerstone of fair and free elections, and too many states have fallen into a pattern of noncompliance with basic voter roll maintenance,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will continue filing proactive election integrity litigation until states comply with basic election safeguards.”

The NVRA and HAVA standardize voter registration processes across states, requiring regular maintenance to remove ineligible voters while protecting eligible ones. The CRA allows the attorney general to inspect and analyze voter lists to ensure civil rights are protected in elections. The attorney general is also tasked by Congress with enforcing the NVRA and the HAVA.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said that federal election laws are there to ensure every American citizen may vote freely and fairly.

“States that continue to defy federal voting laws interfere with our mission of ensuring that Americans have accurate voter lists as they go to the polls, that every vote counts equally, and that all voters have confidence in election results,” Dhillon said.

This is but the latest in a string of actions taken by the Trump administration to combat noncompliance with voter laws at the state level. In September, the Justice Department sued Maine and Oregon for not handing over unredacted voter rolls and maintenance details.

The New Mexico Secretary of State’s office told The Epoch Times that it already provided the Justice Department with “publicly available voter data” but said it’s legally prevented from turning over “personal private voter information.”

“They are seeking access to sensitive data that’s simply not needed to comply with voter list maintenance and which is protected by state law,” office spokesperson Alex Curtas said in a statement.

The Epoch Times has also reached out to the Maryland State Board of Elections, the Delaware Department of Elections, and the secretaries of state for Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington for comment.

On Sept. 26, the Justice Department sued California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania for withholding registration records, as required by federal law.

And earlier in June, a suit was filed against Orange County, California, Registrar of Voters for failing to turn over noncitizen voting records. The administration has also moved to withhold funding from Wisconsin’s elections commission for failure to comply.

Texas identified more than 2,700 suspected noncitizen voters via federal data reviews in October. North Carolina settled a federal case in September to improve voter data collection.