WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the final weeks before Election Day, Trump’s Justice Department has repeatedly overreached, trying to determine who gets to vote – and courts keep shutting it down. From California to Utah to Georgia, judges appointed by presidents of both parties have rejected DOJ’s efforts to set aside ballots based on unreliable lists, seize Americans’ private voter data, and override states’ authority to run their own elections, and a federal judge in D.C. has struck down the nationwide program behind them. The department lost 27 straight lawsuits seeking voter files, with Republican election officials joining the pushback.
With five days until Election Day, the courts have delivered a clear message: states run elections, voters’ personal information is protected, and every eligible ballot counts.
Here’s what you need to know:
In California, Courts Rejected DOJ’s Attempt to Sideline Voters Twice in Three Days
DOJ sued California on Oct. 15 – less than three weeks before Election Day and after the state had already begun processing mail ballots. When the trial judge didn’t rule on DOJ’s preferred timeline, the department appealed directly to the 9th Circuit, which dismissed the appeal 2-1 on Monday. The court found that DOJ had largely created its own emergency through delay. Trump-appointed Judge Mark Bennett wrote separately that he would have rejected the request on its merits as well.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Carter denied DOJ’s request outright and questioned whether the government’s process for building its list was credible. Los Angeles County had told the court that in a sample of 200 records, 112 belonged to canceled or inactive registrations and more than a quarter listed a U.S. birthplace. Judge Carter warned that “if the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger.”
California Is One Piece of a Nationwide Campaign, and DOJ Has Lost 27 Straight Times
The California lawsuit grew out of a broader effort to take control of Americans’ voter data. The Constitution puts states in charge of administering elections, but DOJ sued 30 states and D.C. to force them to hand over unredacted voter files containing birthdates, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers—and it hasn’t won a single district court ruling.
Some of the officials who stood up to DOJ are Republicans. On Oct. 23, Trump-appointed Judge David Barlow dismissed DOJ’s lawsuit against Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson (R) with prejudice, noting that the civil rights law DOJ invoked was enacted to combat voter suppression. On Sept. 30, a federal judge dismissed DOJ’s second lawsuit against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), ruling that federal law doesn’t override Georgia’s voter privacy protections.
A Federal Judge Struck Down the Program at the Center of It
Earlier this month, a federal judge went further than any case involving a single state. On Oct. 9, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan vacated DOJ’s nationwide voter list program, ruling that the department exceeded its legal authority and violated federal privacy law by collecting state voter files and running them through federal citizenship databases. The ruling even covers the 18 states that voluntarily handed over their files. Sooknanan found that the policy has removed U.S. citizens from the voter rolls and risks disenfranchising many more. DOJ is asking the court to let the program keep running while it appeals.