The Trump administration has suffered its 21st consecutive court defeat in its effort to obtain voter rolls from US states, deepening a legal battle over who should control the nation’s elections. With the November 3 midterm elections approaching, the administration is trying to expand federal oversight while Republicans defend narrow majorities in Congress, according to Reuters.
A federal judge in Washington, DC, ruled this week that states are not required to hand over unredacted voter records to the federal government. The lists may contain sensitive information, including dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers.
US District Judge Randolph Moss said the Constitution gives states the main responsibility for running federal elections. If the Justice Department believes more records are needed, he wrote, it should take that argument to Congress rather than demand the information directly from the states.
The administration says the campaign is necessary to prevent noncitizens from voting. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that widespread noncitizen voting benefits Democrats, although state audits and independent studies have found such voting to be rare. A Reuters investigation found that only 129 people had been prosecuted for noncitizen voting since it became a federal crime in 1996. Many of those cases involved confusion or mistakes, rather than an organised conspiracy.
The Justice Department has sued more than two dozen states that refused to provide their voter rolls. It has appealed 16 of its losses and could still win in nine similar cases that remain pending. So far, however, it has lost the only appeal to be decided, when a federal appeals panel upheld the dismissal of its case against Michigan.
The administration has also warned states that they could lose some disaster funds if they do not use a federal immigration database to check voter citizenship. Voting-rights groups and Democrats describe the pressure as coercive and fear it could weaken public trust before the midterms.
