Trump admin sues red state election official to force him to turn over sensitive vote

The Trump administration sued Idaho’s top election official after he declined to give the federal government access to sensitive personal information about 1 million Idaho registered voters.

Idaho secretary of state won’t give US Justice Department sensitive voter information

The U.S. Justice Department sued Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane on Wednesday, and asked a federal judge to force him to turn over the full voter data, which includes partial Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.

More than a month ago, McGrane declined the Justice Department’s demands for the voter data — even after the Justice Department has sued other states. In December, a Justice Department attorney threatened to sue Idaho if it didn’t turn over the data, according to a voicemail that the Idaho Capital Sun obtained in a public records request.

McGrane, a Republican who’s running for re-election, told the Justice Department in a February letter that he doesn’t believe his office is required under “a clear legal duty” to share Idaho’s full voter roll with the federal government.

“Idaho law strictly governs the disclosure of voter information. In the absence of a clear legal requirement that Idaho provide a copy of its complete, unredacted voter list, and in light of my responsibility to protect Idahoans’ personal information, my office will not provide the requested data,” McGrane wrote to the Justice Department in February.

The lawsuit marks the Justice Department’s 30th against states for not complying with its demands for voter data.

In a statement, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said many state election officials “are choosing to fight us in court rather than show their work.”

“The Justice Department will continue to fulfill its oversight role dutifully, neutrally, and transparently wherever Americans vote in federal elections,” Dhillon said. “Many state election officials, however, are choosing to fight us in court rather than show their work. We will continue to verify that all States are carrying out critical election integrity legal duties.”

In a statement Wednesday, McGrane said he’s confident “in Idaho’s elections and the efforts we’ve led to ensure secure and accessible elections.”

“Idahoans have confidence in how we run our elections,” McGrane told the Sun. “The county clerks and I are committed to ensuring that confidence continues into this year’s mid-term elections.”

After reviewing the citizenship status of all registered voters with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, McGrane said only 11 noncitizens were referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.

How we got here: Justice Department says it sought info for election security

McGrane’s office already gave the Justice Department a copy of Idaho’s publicly available voter registration list, which scrubs that sensitive personal information, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.

The Justice Department has said it wants Idaho’s data to ensure election integrity.

But as the Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement, some fear how the federal government will use the data. A Justice Department attorney recently told a federal judge in Rhode Island that the Justice Department is sharing the voter data with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to look for noncitizens, Stateline reported.

Trump has falsely claimed that droves of noncitizens vote, a crime which is actually rare nationally and in Idaho.

In September, the U.S. Justice Department asked Idaho — like it had asked other states — to turn over its full voter registration records with identifiable, sensitive information on registered voters.

The Justice Department has sued 29 other states for refusing to turning over their voter registration lists with sensitive information, according to the Brennan Center. But federal judges dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuits against Oregon, California and Michigan.

Idaho election officials have detailed to the Justice Department the state’s work to purge noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls. In a December email obtained by the Sun, an Idaho election official told federal officials that after verifying citizenship for all registered Idaho voters, the Secretary of State’s Office flagged about 30 possible noncitizens to be investigated.

The number of suspected noncitizens on Idaho’s voter roll referred to prosecution got even smaller from there. Idaho State Police referred about a dozen people to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is part of the U.S. Justice Department, for possible prosecution, the state official wrote.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.