In Win for Election Integrity, Federal Court Shuts Down Trump’s ‘fishing expedition’ for Sensitive RI Voter Records

PROVIDENCE, RI --In a win for voter privacy, data security, and election integrity, Rhode Island became the fifth state to defeat the Trump Administration in court after a federal judge ruled against the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division’s demand for sensitive voter registration records of Rhode Islanders.
As the Trump Administrationseeks unprecedented control over elections nationwide, the U.S. Department of Justice has spent months suing 29 states and Washington, DC to try and collect sensitive, non-public voter data. The Trump Administration sought to force Rhode Island to disclose unredacted voter records, including sensitive personal information like driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
Rhode Island law protects voters’ personal information, and the state had already offered a complete, updated voter roll that redacted sensitive information. Noting the potential for a serious data breach, the state declined to provide without cause the personal data of law-abiding citizens to the Trump Administration without a lawful court order.
In a ruling today, U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy, noted that two federal laws govern the states’ handling of voter records: the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and concluded: “The Court finds that the Attorney General's demand lacks a legally sufficient basis to satisfy Title III's requirements. Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements of the NVRA and HAVA.”
“With that established, the purpose stated in the Attorney General's demand—purportedly, to ensure compliance with the NVRA and HAVA—does not plausibly relate to individual voting rights,”the judge continued. “Neither the NVRA nor HAVA authorize DOJ to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here. As such, for the foregoing reasons, the Court DENIES the United States' Motion to Compel Production and GRANTS Defendants' Motions to Dismiss.”
U.S. Senator Jack Reed called the ruling a win for Rhode Island and election integrity. Reed says it is one thing for President Trump to make baseless claims about election fraud and falsely assert he won the 2020 election, but those evidence-free assertions simply don’t hold up in a court of law and his Administration is not entitled to unlawfully seize people’s personal information just because President Trump wants it.
“This is a win for Rhode Island and election integrity and another legal setback for the Trump Administration, which wascaught red handed trying to mislead the courts. President Trump has repeated false claims about U.S. elections ad nauseam while attempting to grab new election powers for his Administration and seize people’s private election data. The Constitution is clear: states, not the federal government, are charged with administering elections and maintaining voter registration files. The federal government can't just seize law-abiding people’s sensitive information because the president feels like it. Once again, another federal judge upheld that this was an over-reach by the Trump Administration. It is yet another reason why I’m standing up to those seeking to passvoter-suppression bills like the bogus so-called Save Act,” said Reed.
Trump’s lawyers are now 0-5 in bringing these trumped up cases before federal judges, noting that District Court judges have issued similar rulings in California, Oregon, Michigan and Massachusetts. There are still two dozen cases pending in states and one in the District of Columbia that are being sued for unfettered access to voter registration rolls
Access to election information varies by state. Most states, including Rhode Island, release redacted versions of their voter rolls to the public and government agencies as part of their efforts to ensure transparency and maintain accurate, verified voter rolls that can be constantly updated and challenged. However, the Trump Administration demanded states provide the federal government unredacted files, including voters’ private data.
Earlier this year, the FBI executed a search warrant based on previously debunked, untrue claims to raid an election office in Fulton County, Georgia, and seize ballots and other voting records from the 2020 presidential election, according to local officials. The Trump Administration has still not explained what it is doing with this information or brought a case after seizing it.