DOJ lawsuit over voter data could reveal stockpile of private information from Minnesotans
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On Tuesday, a federal judge will decide to either move forward with or dismiss a government lawsuit seeking access to Minnesota’s voter data.
On Feb. 26, the Department of Justice sued five more states, making Minnesota one of 29 states primarily led by Democratic officials, as well as the District of Columbia, to have been brought to court by the DOJ.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said it's about “election integrity.” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said it's “a fishing expedition.” Minnesota has filed to have the case dismissed.
Eileen O'Connor, senior counsel for the Brennan Center's voting rights and elections program at New York University's School of Law, said this grab for state voter data by the federal government is in effort to undermine elections.
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“‘Unusual’ isn't strong enough of a word. The Department of Justice has never attempted to collect this information from every single state, which is what it's trying to do right now,” she said.
States are granted the constitutional right to maintain their own elections. While the federal government has some basic data on voters, the states maintain information that includes partial to full Social Security numbers, addresses and driver’s license numbers. O’Connor said those rolls contain all of the private information a person has.
“Not only voters, but then also groups that are interested in registering voters and engaging the public in civic participation also could feel targeted by these actions,” she said.
Listen to the full conversation by clicking the player above.
