The Trump administration has now lost 21 of the lawsuits it filed to force states to hand over complete voter rolls, even as the Justice Department presses ahead in nine still-pending cases and has appealed most of the setbacks. The fight over the DOJ voter registration roll litigation has reached nearly all 50 states, with the administration seeking unredacted electronic copies of statewide registration lists that include birthdates, addresses, partial Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.
That push matters now because the administration has filed suits against 30 states and the District of Columbia, making the voting records dispute one of its broadest election fights yet. The Justice Department says it needs the information to ensure compliance with the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act, laws that govern how states maintain their rolls and register voters. Elias reacted to the string of losses by saying the administration was already 0-20 in cases aimed at voter rolls, a line that captured how far the litigation had gone before this latest status update.
Some states have turned over public versions of their rolls but refused to provide the complete files the administration wants. That difference is central to the case: the government is not asking only whether the names are public, but whether states must hand over the full electronic lists with sensitive data attached. In Georgia, a federal judge threw out the first case because it was filed in the wrong court, and the government refiled. In Oklahoma, the Justice Department dropped its lawsuit after the state agreed to provide its voter registration list. The remaining pending cases are in Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Nevada, Utah, Vermont and Washington.
The legal record so far has been mixed against the administration’s broader voting agenda as well. Mr. Trump has signed two executive orders aimed at U.S. elections, and both have been blocked by courts. One would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. The other, announced in March, would tighten mail-in voting rules and direct the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Postal Service to compile and maintain lists of U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote. He is also pushing Congress to enact the SAVE America Act, which would curb mail-in voting and impose new voter ID requirements.
The friction in the voter-roll cases is plain. The administration says the records are needed to police federal voting laws, yet judges have repeatedly rejected its efforts, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit has already upheld a lower court ruling against the attempt to obtain Michigan’s rolls. With most dismissals appealed and nine cases still open, the next test is whether any court accepts the government’s reading of the registration laws — or whether the losses keep piling up.
