The Justice Department has expanded its legal effort to obtain sensitive voter information, filing suit against four more states and a Georgia county and raising the total number of states targeted to 18. The newest defendants, announced Friday, are Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Nevada; the DOJ also sued Fulton County, Ga., seeking ballots and other records from the 2020 election.
For months the department has sought complete, unredacted voter registration lists from multiple states, including drivers’ license numbers and portions of Social Security numbers. In court filings the DOJ says it needs those data to confirm compliance with federal laws that require accurate voter rolls. Many states have refused to provide the requested records, pointing to privacy protections and state limits on disclosure.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said the department will not allow states to ‘jeopardize the integrity and effectiveness of elections’ by declining to follow federal election laws. In recent days Dhillon has emphasized the number of voter records processed through a citizenship lookup tool housed at the Department of Homeland Security.
The Fulton County suit seeks all ballots and records from the 2020 election, which President Trump lost. That action follows the recent dismissal of a high-profile election-interference case brought by Fulton County prosecutors against Trump and several allies. Fulton County has frequently been the target of unfounded claims that the 2020 results were rigged.
Colorado officials pushed back against the DOJ. Secretary of State Jena Griswold said she will not turn over Coloradans’ sensitive voting information and vowed to defend the state in court. The DOJ’s suit against Colorado comes as former President Trump announced he would pardon Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk serving a nine-year sentence for granting unauthorized access to voting equipment; the pardon was described as largely symbolic because Peters was convicted on state charges and state pardons are issued by governors. The Justice Department also recently announced a review of conditions in Colorado prisons.
With reporting by NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang and Benjamin Swasey.