(WHTM) — Pennsylvania will not hand over its statewide voter registration list, including personal information such as driver’s license and Social Security numbers, after the Department of Justice requested it earlier this month.

An Aug. 4 letter sent by the DOJ to Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt asked for the state’s electronic voter roll, as well as information on its answers to a survey about election administration. The department did not provide a reason for the request.

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This Week in Pennsylvania

“This request, and reported efforts to collect broad data on millions of Americans, represent a
concerning attempt to expand the federal government’s role in our country’s electoral process,” Schmidt said in an Aug. 21 letter to the DOJ.

Schmidt said because the department did not provide any legal justification for the confidential information, his office could not hand over confidential information. He further said state and federal law, including the Help America Vote Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1960, provide no legal authority for the request, nor for his office to share personal information.

Instead, Schmidt said he could provide the DOJ with the state’s full voter export list, which contains all voters in the Commonwealth. That list is already publicly available through the PA Department of State’s website, and it contains information such as voter ID number, name, sex, date of birth, date registered, voter status, party affiliation, addresses, polling place, date last voted, all districts in which the voter votes, voter history and the date the voter’s record was last changed.

He further directed the DOJ to the PA Department of State website, where the list costs $20 and requesters must agree to the terms and conditions for use of the list.

Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt’s Response to DOJ RequestDownload

President Donald Trump has escalated pressure on states in recent days as part of his campaign to rectify his grievances over the 2020 election, which he lost. On Tuesday, the president said he would “lead a movement” to end mail-in voting, a method of voting he has routinely used, across the country.

And while the Constitution provides for states to manage their own elections, and gives the president no control over any election, Trump inaccurately described states as “merely an ‘agent’ for the federal government in counting and tabulating the votes.”

Trump vows to change how elections are run. The Constitution doesn’t give him that power

PA Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) rebuffed the president’s claim.

“But Donald Trump can sign whatever the hell executive orders he wants to sign and make a show out of whatever he wants,” Shapiro said on Tuesday. “But he can’t change the Constitution with an executive order, and the Constitution gives the authority to set our election rules to the states.”

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