Justice Department Has Sued 30 States and D.C. Over Voter Rolls, and Mostly Lost

The Trump administration has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia to force them to hand over complete voter registration lists, and courts have so far sided against the government in the large majority of those cases.

The Justice Department has pursued the data in nearly all 50 states. Officials say they need it to confirm that states are complying with two federal laws, the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act, which are meant to ensure states maintain accurate voter rolls.

Last year, the administration sent letters to most states asking for unredacted electronic copies of their statewide voter registration lists. Those files contain voters' birthdates, addresses, partial Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers.

A number of states responded by providing publicly available versions of their rolls while refusing to release the full lists. The Justice Department then turned to the courts, filing suits meant to compel the states to comply.

That strategy has largely failed. Federal judges have rejected 27 of the lawsuits. In Georgia, a judge dismissed the government's first case because it was filed in the wrong court, and government lawyers then refiled it. The department voluntarily dropped its suit against Oklahoma after the state agreed to provide its voter registration list.

Cases in Delaware, Hawaii and Idaho remain pending.

The Justice Department has appealed most of the rulings that dismissed its cases. One appeals court has weighed in so far: the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit upheld a lower court's decision rejecting the administration's attempt to obtain Michigan's voter rolls.

The lawsuits are part of a broader effort by President Trump to exert more control over federal elections. He has signed two executive orders on the subject, and courts have blocked both. The first was signed last year. The second, announced in March, requires the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service to compile and maintain lists of U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote.

Mr. Trump is also urging Congress to pass a package of voting rules called the SAVE America Act, which would significantly curtail mail-in voting and impose new voter ID requirements.

The president has long criticized mail-in voting and claimed it leads to widespread fraud, though he has not presented evidence to support that claim. He has also asserted that Democratic states allow noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections. Voting by noncitizens is a federal crime.