SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against California that sought detailed voting records and personal data on its 23 million registered voters, concluding that the government’s request was “unprecedented and illegal.”
The Trump administration’s lawsuit, filed last year, contended that California and other states were illegally blocking the federal government’s wide-ranging effort to scrutinize detailed voter data that states said was private and protected.
The administration “may not unilaterally usurp the authority over elections” U.S. District Judge David O. Carter in Santa Ana said in his 33-page decision.
Furthermore, the attempt to gather and centralize the personal information would have a chilling effect on voter registration and threaten “the right to vote which is the cornerstone of American democracy,” the judge ruled.
“There cannot be unbridled consolidation of all elections power in the executive (branch) without action from Congress,” Carter said. “This is antithetical to the promise of fair and free elections.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
It has accused states of failing to respond sufficiently to questions about the procedures they take to maintain voter rolls. The department has sued 23 states, most of them controlled by Democrats, and the District of Columbia for detailed voter data that includes names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
State election officials have questioned what the DOJ plans to do with that information. Last fall 10 Democratic secretaries of state wrote Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to express concern over reports that the DOJ was sharing state voter data with the Department of Homeland Security.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of DHS, operates a program that checks citizenship status.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the state’s chief elections officer, said in a statement that California would “continue to challenge this administration’s disregard for the rule of law and our right to vote.”