DOJ's push to collect your data is a fishing expedition

With his approval ratings inking lower and lower, and facing the prospect of losing control of the House to Democrats, President Donald Trump is engaged in an unprecedented attempt to manipulate the midterm elections. Not only has he demanded that Texas redraw its congressional districts, he’s now got Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice embarking on another insidious strategy: Building a dossier of private information on every voter that Trump can use for political advantage.

- Mary Ellen Klas, Tribune News Service

Over the past several weeks, the DOJ Civil Rights Division has sent letters to more than a dozen states demanding they hand over their voter lists, including sensitive private information—such as driver's license and Social Security numbers linked to names, home addresses and, in many cases, dates of birth.

The DOJ is telling state election officials that it needs the data to check their compliance with the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act—presumably to hunt for illegal voting — and it reportedly intends to contact all 50 states. But while federal law gives the Justice Department the ability to require states to put procedures in place to comply with those laws and remove ineligible voters from voter rolls, it doesn’t give the federal government authority over election administration — and that includes reviewing and maintaining the rolls themselves, said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research.