Trump administration seeks Illinois voter rolls amid concerns over voter eligibility

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) — The Trump administration has asked for a copy of Illinois’ voter registration database, including information on individual voters and about the state’s effort to remove ineligible voters from the rolls.

According to Capitol News Illinois, lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division sent a letter

to Illinois election officials on Monday, July 28th.

“The Department of Justice asked for the complete voter file for the state of Illinois, including all fields in that file, which is an absolutely huge file that contains so much sensitive data about Illinois citizens, including driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers and dates of birth that the Department of Justice is not entitled to receive and not entitled to demand,” said David Becker, a former attorney and head of the Center for Election Innovation and Research.

According to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, states are required to make records about their efforts to ensure accurate voter registration lists available to the public.

“This case presents important questions regarding enforcement of the National Voter Registration Act,” attorneys in Civil Rights Division said. “Congress has vested the Attorney General with authority to enforce the NVRA (National Voter Registration Act) on behalf of the United States. Accordingly, the United States has a substantial interest in ensuring proper interpretation of the NVRA.”

The request is part of a federal lawsuit from the legal advocacy group Judicial Watch, which said reports Illinois filed leading up to the 2024 election suggested that several counties had irregularities in maintaining their rolls of registered voters.

According to the suit, from November 2020 through November 2022, 11 Illinois counties did not remove any voters from their registration lists, suggesting no one died or moved during that two-year period. Another 12 counties reported removing 15 or fewer voters over that same period, something the complaint describes as “absurdly small numbers” in counties that were home to over 980,000 registered voters.

The DOJ has also asked for the number of ineligible voters because of citizenship status, felony convictions, or adjudicated as incompetent.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to protect the integrity of American elections, requiring voters to show documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when they register to vote. The order has been blocked while a legal challenge to it is heard.

The Washington Post reported that the DOJ has asked at least nine other states for copies of their voter rolls.