The DOJ’s courtroom efforts to obtain voter rolls
— which include addresses, Social Security numbers, and other private data
— have grown from scattered early attempts
to now include all 50 states.

As ProPublica reported in 2017,
the tactic had been trialed by the first Trump administration,
which that year requested data from every state.

But this legal fusillade is another matter;
far surpassing past scattered challenges.

This wide-scale legal assault,
as The New York Times described it in September,
“has proceeded along two tracks,
one at the Justice Department’s civil rights division
and another at its criminal division”

— a full mobilization.

Again, the Constitution mandates that election administration is the purview of states.

Federal control of voter roll data is not only without historical precedent;
it would also likely represent a massive breach of privacy law and disclosure obligations.

Truthout reached out to "Voting Rights Lab",
a policy analysis think tank staffed by election experts.

The Lab’s co-founder and CEO
#Samantha #Tarazi commented,
“These efforts make it clear President Trump is preparing to use the power of his office to interfere in the 2026 election.
What started as an unconstitutional executive order
— marching orders for state action regardless of its fate in court
— has grown into a full federal mobilization to seize power over our elections,”
placing “enormous pressure” on democratic systems.

Another leading civil rights watchdog, the "Brennan Center for Justice", has been tracking the ongoing legal battles.

As of this writing,
24 states, along with Washington, D.C.,
are being sued in an attempt to force sharing of confidential data;
💥not coincidentally, almost all are blue and/or battleground states.

In Nebraska and South Carolina,
👍voters themselves
“have filed cases in state court to prevent election officials from sharing their private voter information,”
the Brennan Center noted.

Such widespread refusals have set the stage for a series of pitched legal battles.

Meanwhile, some states have complied willingly.

In December, Stateline covered how the DOJ presented 11 Republican-led states
(which are, of course, more likely to comply)
with a confidential proposal:

🔥a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would give the federal government the power to review roll data and purge voters at will.

Officials in 11 states
— Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia
— have expressed interest;

Colorado and Wisconsin rejected the offer.
(Both, of course, were then sued.)

And four states,
all Republican-led (Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, and Wyoming)
“complied voluntarily” with the Justice Department’s demand,
seemingly happy to do so;

Still, given the Trump administration’s vindictive nature, other pressures may have been in play.
#MassDisenfranchisement

https://truthout.org/articles/trump-doj-sues-to-force-states-to-share-confidential-voter-data/