Judge rejects Trump administration’s attempt to get unredacted Wisconsin voter registration list

A federal judge has rejected the Trump administration’s bid to acquire Wisconsin’s full voter registration list. 

Last year, the Trump administration requested an unredacted list of Wisconsin’s registered voters. According to federal officials, that list needed to include either partial social security numbers or driver’s license numbers.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission refused to provide that documentation, citing state privacy laws. That prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to sue, arguing that it needed the unredacted information to ensure that Wisconsin was complying with the federal Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act. It also argued that the Elections Commission was required to provide the list under Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

On Thursday, however, U.S. District James Peterson dismissed that suit with prejudice.

“The court agrees that a voter registration list is not a record subject to production under Title III,” Peterson wrote. “So it will dismiss the complaint on that ground without considering defendants’ other arguments.”

Several voter advocacy groups intervened in that case. They’ve accused the Trump administration of trying to use the lists to restrict voting rights.

“The administration is seeking this data for pretextual purposes as it attempts to build an illegal voter database to try to intimidate eligible voters, including in Wisconsin, and remove them from the rolls,” Jonathan Topaz, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project said in a statement.

The Trump administration has filed similar lawsuits against 29 other states and the District of Colombia. So far, federal courts have dismissed eight of those suits on the merits, according to the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. That includes a case against Maine, which was also dismissed Thursday.