'Abuse of Power': Trump DOJ Attack on State Voter Rolls Decried as Threat to Democracy

With the US Department of Justice’s latest demand for the personal information of millions of voters in six states, one voting rights advocate said Thursday, the DOJ is “harassing election officials” as part of a relentless effort to use voters as “pawns.”

The Trump administration filed federal lawsuits against officials in California, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and New Hampshire after the states refused to hand over statewide voter rolls including people’s personal data such as their driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.

“This is not normal,” Bellows said last week, accusing President Donald Trump’s DOJ of “using its immense federal power to try to intimidate us into turning over protected voter data and changing our voting processes to fit President Trump’s whims.”