Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes denied the Trump administration’s request for access to the sensitive data of millions of voters in the state.
The Department of Justice requested that at least 30 states hand over their voter roll data, including names, addresses, birthdates, driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.
Arizona’s denial of the request comes as a Reuters report found that the Justice Department is engaged in talks with Homeland Security Investigations regarding the transfer of sensitive voter roll data it has collected from states to use in criminal and immigration-related investigations.
“Registering to vote should not subject Arizonans to criminal investigation. For that reason, the AZ SoS’s Office denied the DoJ’s request for AZ’s entire voter registration database, which includes sensitive info such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, & driver’s license numbers. It is the duty of this office to protect voter privacy and uphold the integrity of elections — and that is precisely what this Office is doing,” Fontes said in a social media statement Tuesday.
Fontes informed Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ Civil Rights Division, last month that state law prohibits him from releasing much of the information the DOJ was looking to obtain. He noted that the National Voter Registration Act, which the DOJ cited, allows states to withhold sensitive information.
Fontes said that Arizona voters “have important privacy rights that cannot be infringed because they choose to exercise their constitutionally protected civil rights.”
The DOJ’s request has been met with alarm from civic groups, which have said it has the potential to erode public trust and put voter privacy at risk.
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The Trump administration is also looking to establish a national voting database involving more than 30 states to prove President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims that the United States is filled with people voting illegally, according to a New York Times report. Multiple studies and state audits of elections have found noncitizen voting to be rare.
A judge last week temporarily blocked the Trump administration from accessing the sensitive information of millions of South Carolina voters.
