Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and nine of her colleagues from around the country are pressing the Trump administration to explain why they need detailed voter information in the latest twist in legal and political battles over access to voter data.
The Department of Justice has requested voter information from several dozen states as part of what agency officials say is their obligation to ensure states are maintaining accurate voter rolls and excluding ineligible individuals, such as noncitizens. The DOJ sued Maine in September after Bellows' office refused to share complete copies of the state's voter registration rolls.
Bellows, a Democrat who is running for governor next year, has said the request would require her to disclose sensitive voter information in violation of state law.
She joined nine other Democratic secretaries of state on a letter sent last week to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asking for more information about how voter data is being shared between the agencies — and how it is being used.
"Federal law and the U.S. Constitution are clear: states are responsible for administering elections," the group wrote in the letter. "Additionally, transmitting this information to another federal agency raises serious Privacy Act concerns and risks improper dissemination of and access to sensitive voter data. We are deeply concerned about the inconsistent and misleading information that Secretaries have received from the DOJ and DHS and with the potential lack of compliance with federal law."
Specifically, the letter points to one example in which DHS assistant secretary Heather Honey reportedly told secretaries of state during a meeting that the agency had not requested voter data and did not intend to seek it. But later that day, DHS publicly disclosed that it had received such data.
In addition to Bellows, the letter was signed by secretaries of state from Arizona, Colorado, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Minnesota, Vermont, Washington and Oregon.
Bellows said in an interview that they are demanding answers about what the agencies plan to do with the data.
"If the federal government wants Americans' voter data, they should tell the truth about why," Bellows said. "And not only are they asserting unprecedented power but they seem to be misleading the states about it. Which is why we followed up with formal requests for information about what their intentions are."
In statements, the DOJ said the requests for voter data is consistent with the authority granted by Congress to ensure states are maintaining "clean voter rolls containing only eligible voters" and that the information was being used to screen for ineligible voter entries.
“Clean voter rolls and basic election safeguards are requisites for free, fair, and transparent elections," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said. "The DOJ Civil Rights Division has a statutory mandate to enforce our federal voting rights laws, and ensuring the voting public’s confidence in the integrity of our elections is a top priority of this administration.”
A statement from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service at DHS referred to the SAVE program, an online service administered by the agency that allows state, local and tribal officials to verify the immigration status.
"USCIS remains dedicated to eliminating barriers to securing the nation’s electoral process," USCIS Spokesman Matthew Tragesser said in a statement. "By allowing states to efficiently verify voter eligibility, we are reinforcing the principle that America’s elections are reserved exclusively for American citizens. We encourage all federal, state, and local agencies to use the SAVE program.”
Bellows has repeatedly referenced her resistance to the DOJ data requests as part of her campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor. Republicans, meanwhile, have accused Bellows of thwarting federal election integrity efforts and have called on her to resign as secretary of state — Maine's top elections official — while running for governor. There is no law requiring secretaries of state to step down while running for other political offices, however.
