The Trump administration's effort to examine voter registration records across the country has drawn another lawsuit, this time from three organizations accusing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of illegally collecting information on millions of Americans.
The 42-page complaint, filed Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleges DHS obtained voter records from at least 47 states and combined some of that information with commercial databases. The plaintiffs want the court to shut down the program and order the government to delete the records already collected.
The League of Women Voters, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) are behind the suit. Their objection centers on the administration's attempt to identify possible noncitizens on voter rolls, an effort Trump has continued to pursue ahead of the November midterms.
According to EPIC's announcement, DHS documents show Homeland Security Investigations had processed 50.6 million records obtained through the Justice Department and another 48.4 million from other sources by June. Those figures come from the plaintiffs, as does the allegation that the agency collected records from 47 states.
EPIC Executive Director Alan Butler made clear what his organization thinks of the administration's efforts:
“DHS is sweeping up our most sensitive data by any means necessary to fuel its anti-immigration agenda and chase down nonexistent voter fraud. As part of this agenda, the agency is greatly overstepping its authority, violating federal privacy law, and trampling on our privacy, fundamental rights, and democratic values.”
The lawsuit also alleges that DHS combined voter information with commercially purchased data, potentially including Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, and birth dates. The plaintiffs contend that the agency has exceeded its authority and failed to provide the transparency required under federal law.
Those are questions for the court. Butler's declaration that voter fraud is nonexistent is another matter entirely.
Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections. The precise scale of unlawful voting remains disputed, but determining whether registrations meet eligibility requirements is a legitimate government function. The lawsuit will test how far DHS can go in obtaining and using that information. That question is complicated by at least one episode the administration would rather forget: DHS publicly claimed to have identified nearly 16,000 noncitizens registered to vote in Nevada. It later revised that number to 185. Nevada officials then determined every one of those individuals was a U.S. citizen. In other words, the administration's methods have some explaining to do, separate from whether the underlying goal is legitimate.
None of that stopped the plaintiffs from pressing their broader case. The League of Women Voters offered a similarly forceful objection. Its CEO, Celina Stewart, said in the organization's statement:
"The federal government has no business secretly collecting the sensitive personal information of millions of American voters and feeding it into immigration enforcement systems under the guise of election security. Let's be clear: Voting is a fundamental right, not a privilege granted by this administration, and our personal information is not theirs to exploit."
Whether DHS's collection was "secret" in any meaningful sense is a stretch, and the administration has been loudly and publicly pursuing voter roll integrity since taking office. The dispute comes alongside another administration lawsuit filed Thursday against California election officials over more than 20,000 people federal authorities identified as potentially ineligible. State officials dispute the government's evidence and say they had insufficient time to examine the names.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment. RedState previously covered related voter eligibility litigation in its Supreme Court roundup. This complaint targets DHS's collection and handling of voter data specifically.
The plaintiffs are now asking a federal judge to prohibit DHS from continuing the program and using information it has already collected. Whether the agency crossed a legal line remains unresolved.
What is clear is that the administration intends to keep examining voter eligibility, and a well-funded coalition of left-leaning organizations intends to keep it from doing so. The courts will decide how much of that fight the government wins, and how tightly it has to play by the rules to win it.