A federal judge dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit seeking New Hampshire's detailed voter rolls, ruling the request did not comply with federal law. This marks the tenth state where the Trump administration has lost similar cases.
The ruling is a setback for the Trump administration's efforts to obtain detailed voter data nationwide, reinforcing privacy concerns and state control over election information.
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department that sought to compel New Hampshire to release its detailed voter rolls. U.S. District Judge Joseph LaPlante ruled on Monday that the request did not comply with a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 concerning federal election records and that the Justice Department failed to allege any violation under the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
LaPlante stated that the ruling prevents "allowing the Attorney General unrestricted access to New Hampshire’s (voter list) to conduct a line-by-line audit to assess a ‘possible’ violation of a federal statute." New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, a Republican, welcomed the decision, affirming his commitment to protecting the private information of the state's voters.
This dismissal marks the tenth instance where the Justice Department has lost similar cases. The department has pursued detailed state voter data, which can include dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers, in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Judges have previously rejected such attempts in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. In Georgia, a lawsuit was dismissed for being filed in the wrong city, leading to a refiling.
Federal officials have explained their pursuit of this data by stating it is necessary to ensure states are complying with federal laws regarding voter registration lists, despite states already having established processes for this. In a case concerning Rhode Island, a Justice Department attorney acknowledged the aim was to obtain unredacted voter roll information for sharing with the Department of Homeland Security to verify citizenship status. Both Democratic and some Republican officials have opposed these Justice Department requests, citing violations of state and federal privacy laws. According to reporting from the Brennan Center for Justice and the Associated Press, at least 13 states have either provided or agreed to provide their voter registration lists to the department.
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