The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against New Jersey, seeking access to private voter information, including birth dates, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers, according to New Jersey Monitor.
It follows federal requests for voter data first made last July, which New Jersey officials quickly denied. It is part of a broader effort by the U.S. Department of Justice to obtain voter rolls from multiple states.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said the department is acting to “fulfill its oversight role dutifully, neutrally, and transparently wherever Americans vote in federal elections.”
New Jersey Officials Push Back
Attorney General Jen Davenport called the request “baseless,” emphasizing New Jersey’s commitment to protecting residents’ privacy. Governors and election officials across dozens of states have similarly rejected federal demands for private voter data.
Earlier this month, a Trump-appointed judge in Michigan tossed a similar lawsuit, ruling that no federal laws or constitutionally-granted powers give the administration full access to voter lists.
The New Jersey suit cites the same statutes: the Help America Vote Act, the National Voter Registration Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
Civil rights groups have criticized the White House’s lawsuit, warning it threatens voter privacy and can be used to challenge or remove voters. Amol Sinha, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey, described the effort as “an unconstitutional and unlawful overreach and a brazen abuse of power.”
Read the ACLU of New Jersey’s full statement here.
White House Sues 29 States and D.C. For Voter Data
The Trump administration has now sued 29 states and the District of Columbia for voter data—a move that many call unprecedented. Officials in several states have offered only public registration lists, which exclude sensitive personal information.
Critics argue that the move reflects an ongoing push to nationalize elections—a process managed at the state level, as dictated by the Constitution.
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.