According to Reuters report on August 7th, this week a judge ruled that states have no obligation to transfer voter registration records to the federal government. The Trump administration’s attempt to obtain state voter rolls has resulted in a 21st court defeat this year.
Reports indicate that in the mid-term elections on November 3rd, the Republican Party needs to maintain a slight majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Therefore, the Trump administration has taken tough measures recently to expand federal oversight over elections.
U.S. President Trump claimed that the participation of a large number of non-citizens in voting benefited the Democratic Party. However, state audits and independent studies have shown that the occurrence of non-citizen voting is very rare.
A Reuters survey shows that since 1996, when legislation made non-referenda criminal acts, only 129 people have been prosecuted for this offense. The majority of these cases resulted from confusion among voters themselves or errors in communication with election officials, rather than organized fraud schemes.
Including this week, the judge has repeatedly ruled that the U.S. Constitution grants states the primary authority over federal elections, and federal election laws do not require states to hand over voter records.
The U.S. Federal District Judge Rudolph Moss, appointed by Democratic President Obama, rejected the Department of Justice’s request on Thursday for a non-masked voter list in Washington D.C. The ruling stated: “If the Department of Justice does not agree with Congress’s judgment regarding the records required for law enforcement… it should raise objections to Congress.”
The Department of Justice has filed lawsuits against more than twenty states that refuse to submit their voter roll, which includes information such as birth dates and some social security numbers.
The Trump administration has initiated a series of lawsuits while threatening to cut off some disaster relief funds if states do not use the federal system to verify voters' citizenship. They also attempt to restrict eligibility for mailing ballots.
Assistant Attorney General responsible for civil rights affairs announced on Monday that "Ensuring only eligible citizens can vote is a core duty of the government, and each state has an obligation to maintain accurate voter rolls."
Since January of this year, the United States Department of Justice has faced 21 lost cases. These cases involve federal judges appointed by both parties from across the United States. The cases have occurred in states like California, where Democrats hold power, as well as in states controlled by Republicans, such as West Virginia.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice cited a survey conclusion issued by the Department of Homeland Security on July 17: More than 250,000 potential non-citizens completed voter registration in four states. The statement also mentioned a case in New Jersey where 400 non-citizens actually voted due to registration errors between 2023 and 2024.
The Department of Homeland Security did not specify exactly how many of these 250,000 people are non-citizens, or how many actually voted. It also did not explain the methodology used to collect this data. In the 2024 presidential elections, over 4 million people voted in New Jersey. The state’s Democratic governor stated that there was no evidence indicating that these votes changed any election results.
