Department of Justice waiting for response on Massachusetts voter data

Date:2025-08-05 04:59:20 Category:US Views:1 Comment:0

Election officials in Massachusetts are considering their response to the U.S. Department of Justice’s request for the state’s voter database.

The Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth received a letter from the department July 22, said the office’s spokeswoman, Debra O’Malley. The letter asked the office for “information and data” regarding the state’s maintenance of the voter list, she said.

It also asked for a copy of the state’s database of voters.

“The letter is currently under review by our legal team,” O’Malley wrote in an email Monday. “We have not responded at this time.”

The request is one of several the department has made to election officials around the country, according to the Associated Press. The move has caused alarm among some officials because federal laws protect individuals’ data when it comes to the government obtaining it. Furthermore, the constitutional duty to run elections rests with the states.

The Republican asked the department what it planned to do with voter data and if there was a specific instance in Massachusetts that led it to request the information.

The department responded with a statement by Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division: “Clean voter rolls and basic election safeguards are requisites for free, fair, and transparent elections,” the statement 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.”

Reporting by the Associated Press said the department had requested voter data from 15 states in various formats, including by phone or to propose entering into information-sharing agreements. The election administrators of those states are a bipartisan mix of five Republicans, nine Democrats and a commission of both parties in one, according to the Associated Press.

While Massachusetts is mulling its response, Maine’s secretary of state already has her answer for the federal government. Sharing the information would violate the privacy of the Pine Tree State’s voters, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows told the Associated Press.

The Department of Justice “doesn’t get to know everything about you just because they want to,” Bellows, a Democrat, told the Associated Press.

While the department historically has sought to protect voters who are seeking to cast their ballots, the request for the states’ voter rolls suggests the department is shifting its focus, the Associated Press reported. For years, President Donald Trump falsely claimed there were widespread instances of voter fraud and noncitizens casting votes.