The DOJ sued six states for failing to turn over their voter registration lists

The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued six states for failing to submit their voter registration lists on time. The list is made up of California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, five governed by Democrats and one by Republicans.

Pam Bondi, attorney general, requested this information earlier this year, claiming her agency wanted to examine whether or not they complied with statutory voter registration requirements.

According to the DOJ, failure to submit these records constitutes a violation of federal law, specifically the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). The legislation, enacted in 2002 by President George W. Bush, imposes requirements for states on the maintenance of voter rolls.

The lawsuits, already filed separately in the relevant districts, require the states involved to turn over their voter registration record information, including names, dates of birth, driver's license numbers, and last digits of Social Security numbers. 

Some of the requirements established by HAVA are as follows: that each state have a single, official, centralized, and computerized voter registry; that such a registry be kept up-to-date and accessible to remove deceased, duplicate, or ineligible persons; and that each voter have a unique identifier in the system, among others.

While it is the states that are tasked with complying with them, the DOJ has the authority to sue them if it believes they are failing to comply.

"Clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections. Every state has a responsibility to ensure that voter registration records are accurate, accessible, and secure—states that don’t fulfill that obligation will see this Department of Justice in court," Bondi said via a statement released by the DOJ.

"States are required to safeguard American elections by complying with our federal election laws. Clean voter rolls protect American citizens from voting fraud and abuse and restore their confidence that their states’ elections are conducted properly, with integrity, and in compliance with the law," said Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

As for the states' arguments for not submitting the registration, California claimed voter privacy issues, while the New Hampshire secretary of state argued that its own laws prevent it from sharing the requested data with the DOJ.