DOJ May Appeal 22 Voter Roll Losses to Supreme Court as Midterms Near
Updated
Updated · NBC News · Aug 16
DOJ May Appeal 22 Voter Roll Losses to Supreme Court as Midterms Near
3 articles · Updated · NBC News · Aug 16
Summary
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department could ask the Supreme Court to step into 22 cases in which lower courts blocked federal access to state voter rolls before November's midterm elections.
Those cases grew out of President Donald Trump's order demanding voter data including names, birth dates, addresses, driver's license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers to probe election "deficiencies" and possible noncitizen registration.
The department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., over refusals to comply, but judges in states including Oregon and Michigan have sided with at least 22 states seeking to keep the records from federal hands.
Resistance has crossed party lines: Republican-led Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Georgia and Vermont are among the states fighting the effort, with Vermont Gov. Phil Scott arguing states are better equipped than Washington to run elections.
Blanche, newly confirmed after serving as acting attorney general, defended the push as an election-integrity measure while Democrats including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries cast his Justice Department as too closely aligned with Trump.