Overview
- During a federal hearing in Rhode Island, a Justice Department lawyer said the department will share state voter data with Homeland Security under an existing use agreement.
- The department has demanded full statewide voter lists with names, addresses, birth dates, and driver’s-license or partial Social Security numbers, suing 29 states and the District of Columbia that refused.
- At least a dozen states have turned over their lists, yet three federal judges have rejected the Justice Department’s demands so far, with appeals set for later this spring.
- A Homeland Security spokesperson publicly backed the partnership as an election integrity measure, and CBS News previously reported the agencies were nearing a broader deal for immigration and criminal probes.
- The Justice Department says it needs the data to enforce federal voting laws and root out rare noncitizen voting, while critics warn checks may tap DHS’s SAVE system, which has wrongly flagged eligible voters in past reviews.