Federal demand for voter rolls is rejected

Judge calls Trump administration pursuit of California data a threat to democracy.

- BY KEVIN RECTOR

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times CALIFORNIA Secretary of State Shirley Weber speaks at an event in May.

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit demanding California turn over its voter rolls, calling the request "unprecedented and illegal" and accusing the federal government of trying to "abridge the right of many Americans to cast their ballots.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, a Clinton appointee based in Santa Ana, questioned the Justice Department’s motivations and called its lawsuit demanding voter data from California Secretary of State Shirley Weber not just an overreach into state-run elections, but a threat to American democracy.

"The centralization of this information by the federal government would have a chilling effect on voter registration which would inevitably lead to decreasing voter turnout as voters fear that their information is being used for some inappropriate or unlawful purpose," Carter wrote. "This risk threatens the right to vote which is the cornerstone of American democracy."

Carter wrote that the "taking of democracy does not occur in one fell swoop; it is chipped away piece by piece until there is nothing left," and that the Justice Department’s lawsuit was "one of these cuts that imperils all Americans."

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday.

In a video she posted to the social media platform X earlier Thursday, Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon — who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division — said she was proud of her office's efforts to "clean up the voter rolls nationally," including by suing states for their data.