The Justice Department opened a new legal front on election integrity Tuesday, filing federal lawsuits against six states accused of withholding statewide voter registration lists.
The legal action targets Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Federal prosecutors allege that these states failed to produce their voter rolls upon request, a move the DOJ characterizes as a violation of federal transparency statutes.
Attorney General Pam Bondi framed the lawsuits as a necessary step to secure the “cornerstone” of free elections. She argued that too many jurisdictions have slipped into a pattern of neglecting basic maintenance of their voter rolls.
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“The Department of Justice will continue filing proactive election integrity litigation until states comply with basic election safeguards,” Bondi said.
The complaints rely on the enforcement powers granted by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). These laws were established by Congress to ensure states maintain proper, effective registration programs. Additionally, the DOJ is leveraging the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which authorizes the Attorney General to demand the production, inspection, and analysis of voter registration records.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division described the states’ refusal to cooperate as interference with the federal mission to ensure every vote counts equally.
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“States that continue to defy federal voting laws interfere with our mission of ensuring that Americans have accurate voter lists as they go to the polls,” Dhillon said. “At this Department of Justice, we will not stand for this open defiance of federal civil rights laws.”
The filings signal an aggressive shift in how the Justice Department intends to police state-level election administration, specifically regarding the transparency and accuracy of the data used to verify voters at the polls.
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