Illinois refuses to comply with Trump admin’s order to turn over voter data

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) — The deadline has passed for Illinois to turn over voter registration data to the Department of Justice, and the state Board of Elections has refused the request.

Illinois had previously submitted a partial list to the DOJ, but the department demanded additional information by September 1st, including voters’ Social Security and driver’s license numbers.

The DOJ stated that the additional information is necessary to combat voter fraud, a claim that has been met with resistance from Illinois officials who are concerned about voter privacy.

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.

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.

In a letter to the DOJ, the Illinois State Board of Electors refused to comply, saying sharing the information would put the privacy of Illinois residents at risk.

“We take Illinoisans’ privacy very seriously; data breaches and hacking are unfortunately common, and the disclosure of sensitive information contrary to state law would expose our residents to undue risk,” general counsel Marni Malowitz wrote.

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

“Well, it’s clear why they’re hunting around for voter data, right?” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said. “They’re trying to say that in the next election that there would be fraud because they know they’re gonna lose.”