STANDOFF WITH STATES

Even Republican Election Officials Are Refusing Trump’s Demand

The Trump administration has launched an effort to obtain personal information about tens of millions of voters.

Republican election officials in multiple states are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s demand for detailed voter data.

According to CNN and research from the Brennan Center for Justice, at least six Republican-led state election offices have declined to hand over non-public voter information, including Social Security numbers, driver’s license IDs, and addresses.

It comes as the Trump administration has launched an effort to obtain personal information on tens of millions of voters across the country ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The information includes voters’ names, birthdates, addresses, and driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.

In recent weeks, state election offices have received letters from Harmeet Dhillon, who oversees the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, seeking unredacted copies of voter registration databases.

The Department of Justice has insisted that the requested voter information is critical to ensuring compliance with federal law, which requires states to maintain accurate voter registration lists.

Many state election officials argue the DOJ is overstepping, saying elections and voter-roll maintenance are handled at the state level—and that giving detailed personal data could let the federal government identify and remove voters the state hasn’t flagged.

Several election offices have refused to provide the sensitive data, citing concerns over protecting voters’ personal information.

Since September, the DOJ has filed lawsuits against 24 primarily Democratic-led states that declined to share the records. Yet resistance is not limited to Democratic jurisdictions—Republican-led states are increasingly pushing back against the administration’s demands as well.

West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner told CNN last month: “They can have the voter rolls. They’re gonna pay for it like everybody else,” referring to the public list available in his state for $500. “They’re not going to get our personal information.”

“If we could legally comply, we would promptly do so,” Oklahoma State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax said in a letter to the DOJ this month, first reported by Oklahoma News 4 and obtained by CNN.

Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins similarly told state lawmakers that he would not provide the data without a court order, citing state privacy laws.

A Republican election official, speaking anonymously to avoid White House backlash, told CNN the data could be used for immigration enforcement or to cast doubt on midterm election results. “If states don’t give this information and then Republicans lose and they can go back and say, ‘See, it’s because they didn’t give us this information, so they cheated and all these illegal people that shouldn’t have been voting voted,’” the official said.

Other Republican officials have provided some voter information but resisted signing the agreement, according to CNN.

Concerns have also arisen over a proposed 45-day deadline for states to correct issues identified by the DOJ. Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, who ultimately provided the data but refused to sign the DOJ’s agreement, said the timeframe conflicted with state law and the decentralized nature of voter roll maintenance.

“You can’t expect to send me a 45-day window to get this done or else,” Watson said.

“We were adamant on the idea that maintaining voter rolls should be done on the state level.”

Dhillon has dismissed concerns about the request.

“Some of the goofy responses that I have gotten from secretaries of state have included, ‘Oh, my goodness, this is highly confidential Social Security information. We can’t possibly give that to the federal government,’” Dhillon recently said on Just the News. “That’s just silly because the federal government of course issues the Social Security numbers, and people routinely give it out on a daily basis when they go to the doctor or the DMV… that’s very silly.”

According to DOJ correspondence obtained by CNN, only Alaska and Texas have signed the memorandum so far.

The Daily Beast has contacted the DOJ for comment.

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