(The Center Square) – House Republicans are hoping to drum up support for a bill that would pressure the Department of State to cooperate with a lawsuit from the federal Department of Justice over a request for voter information.
The lawsuit filed in September demanded additional personal data like driver’s license numbers and social security numbers in conjunction with publicly available data which already includes information like a voter’s name, registration, sex, home address, date of birth, and voting history.
“With Pennsylvania as the nation’s largest swing state, the integrity of our elections are of vital importance not only to the voters of our Commonwealth but to all Americans,” wrote the bill’s sponsors in a memo circulated in the House.
“Our election administrators should be collaborating enthusiastically with any efforts to ensure that only American citizens are able to register to vote,” says the memo. “Instead, the Department has joined election officials in a number of other states in refusing to provide information for political purposes.”
Critics have said that the lawsuits filed in Pennsylvania and other states are political in nature. The issue is one of several that have led to accusations that the justice department has been weaponized to retaliate against political enemies of the Trump administration.
Secretary of State Al Schmidt said the move was a “concerning attempt to expand the federal government’s role in our country’s electoral process.”
Attorney General Pamela Bondi has denied such allegations. Last week in a Senate oversight hearing, the nation’s top ranking law enforcement officer refused to answer several questions raised by Democrats about the department’s politicization. She cited “ending the weaponization of justice” as one of her main goals in the role, pointing to indictments against Trump and FBI investigations under the Biden administration.
As for the voter rolls, the DOJ has asserted that it is performing its duty to maintain election integrity by requesting the additional data.
“Clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections,” said Bondi. “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.”
Civil rights watchdogs in the state have also spoken out against the DOJ suit.
“Our elections are safe and fair, President Trump should know, he won his presidency with this exact trusted system,” wrote Mike Lee, executive director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “His attempts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of our elections are illogical and appear to be part of a broader strategy to manipulate unfavorable outcomes, who can and can’t vote, and whose votes ultimately count, particularly in key battleground states like Pennsylvania.”
