His administration has mounted an aggressive effort to expand federal oversight of elections<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump looks on as he boards Air Force One en route to Morristown Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, May 22, 2026. Photo: REUTERS\/file <\/p>\n
The Trump administration’s streak of courtroom defeats in its effort to obtain state voter rolls reached 21 this year when a judge ruled this week that states are not required to share the records with the federal government.<\/p>\n
With President Donald Trump’s Republicans defending slim majorities in both chambers of Congress, \u200bhis administration has mounted an aggressive effort to expand federal oversight of elections ahead of the November 3 midterms.<\/p>\n
Trump argues that widespread noncitizen voting is benefitting the Democratic Party, even though state audits \u200cand independent studies have found noncitizen voting to be rare.<\/p>\n
A Reuters<\/em> investigation found that just 129 people have been prosecuted for noncitizen voting since a law criminalising it was passed in 1996, and that most of those cases stemmed from voter confusion or miscommunication with election officials rather than any conspiracy.<\/p>\n Repeatedly, and as recently as this week, judges have found the US Constitution gives states primary responsibility for running federal elections and that federal voting laws do not require them to hand over the records.<\/p>\n Read: Trump signs orders to limit US birthright citizenship, despite Supreme Court ruling<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n “If the department disagrees with Congress\u2019s judgment \u200bas to the records necessary to carry out its enforcement duties … it needs to lodge that objection with Congress,” US District Judge Randolph Moss, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, wrote on Thursday \u200bin dismissing a Justice Department bid to obtain unredacted voter rolls from Washington, DC.<\/p>\n The Justice Department has sued more than two dozen states that refused to comply with \u2060its requests to turn over voter rolls containing information including birthdays and partial Social Security numbers.<\/p>\n The administration has paired its court campaign with threats to withhold some disaster funds from states that do not use a federal system \u200bfor verifying voters’ citizenship, and has sought to restrict who can receive mail ballots.<\/p>\n Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement on Monday, “Ensuring that only eligible citizens vote is a core function of government, and \u200bstates have an obligation to maintain accurate voter rolls.”<\/p>\n Justice Department appeals losses<\/strong><\/p>\n The Justice Department’s 21 losses since January have come from federal judges across the country appointed by presidents of both parties, including Democratic-governed states such as California and Republican-led ones such as West Virginia.<\/p>\n It could still prevail in any of nine similar cases pending.<\/p>\n The department has appealed 16 losses. It has lost one appeal; on June 24, a three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of the department’s \u200blawsuit against Michigan. The department has asked all the court’s active judges to hear the case.<\/p>\n It may also ask the US Supreme Court, where conservative justices hold a 6-3 majority, to consider cases it loses on appeal, though \u200bthere would be no guarantee the court would take up any case.<\/p>\n The administration has taken further steps that voting-rights groups and Democrats describe as coercive.<\/p>\n In early July, Dhillon sent letters to election officials in all 50 states warning they could face criminal \u200ccharges if they \u2060knowingly allowed non-US citizens to remain on their voter rolls.<\/p>\n Last month, the Department of Homeland Security said it would withhold some disaster relief funds from states that do not run voter rolls through the federal immigration database SAVE.<\/p>\n