Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has signed onto a letter with a handful of her counterparts in blue states rebuffing the Trump administration’s request for the voter data.
Over the past several months, Secretary Bellows has repeatedly refused requests from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to turn over the state’s voter rolls and other information about how elections are run.
All ten of the Secretaries of State who signed the letter had received similar requests from the federal government for voter data.
[RELATED: Shenna Bellows Continues to Reject the DOJ’s Request for Maine’s Voter Registration Data]
The opening paragraph of the letter references that there has been recent reporting which suggests that the DOJ has shared voter data with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Secretaries of State indicate that these reports have prompted them to “to seek clarity on whether DOJ and DHS actively misled election officials regarding the uses of voter data.”
The letter then goes on to detail instances in which the Secretaries feel that they have been given “misleading and at times contradictory information.”
“Federal law and the U.S. Constitution are clear: states are responsible for administering elections,” the letter read. “Additionally, transmitting this information to another federal agency raises serious Privacy Act concerns and risks improper dissemination of and access to sensitive voter data.”
At the end of the letter, the Secretaries outline several detailed questions for Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem concerning how these voter records are to be shared and used.
Click Here to Read the Full Letter
“I’m proud to partner with a coalition of states in fighting to protect Americans’ voter data and the integrity of our elections,” Bellows said in a written statement shared Tuesday. “We won’t back down in defending the strength of our elections and the rule of law.”
“The Department of Justice hasn’t shown any compelling reason for wanting the sensitive voter information of every American,” continued Bellows. “They can’t even get their stories straight about what they plan to use it for or who will have access, and their demands appear to violate federal privacy laws and the Constitution.”
“The DOJ’s demands for sensitive, personal information should set off alarms for everyone who cares about privacy and democracy,” she said. “Complying with these unreasonable demands would put the privacy and data security of nearly 1 million Mainers at risk.”
Click Here to Read Secretary Bellows’ Full Statement
The Secretaries of State had asked the Trump Administration officials to issue a response to their questions by Monday, December 1.
Federal officials have previously maintained that obtaining the requested information is critical for maintaining election integrity.
In a statement shared with Maine Public in September, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon defended the federal government’s request.
“Clean voter rolls and basic election safeguards are requisites for free, fair, and transparent elections,” Assistant Attorney General Dhillon said. “The DOJ Civil Rights Division has a statutory mandate to enforce our federal voting rights laws, and ensuring the public’s confidence in the integrity of our elections is a top priority of this administration.”
