Trump administration demands state voter data, including partial Social Security numbers [View all]

Source: CNN Politics

PUBLISHED Sep 1, 2025, 7:30 AM ET


The Trump administration has stepped up efforts to obtain personal information about tens of millions of voters across the country, including seeking sensitive data such as partial Social Security numbers. The push, overseen by the Department of Justice, comes as President Donald Trump asserts a larger federal role in elections ahead of next year’s midterms, which are set to determine which party controls Congress during his last two years in the White House.

In recent weeks, state election officials have received letters from Harmeet Dhillon, who oversees the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, seeking unredacted copies of states’ voter registration databases. The information includes voters’ names, birthdates, addresses, and driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.

The agency has told states that the information is necessary to ensure compliance with a federal law that requires states to maintain accurate voter registration rolls. But some state officials who have received the missives argue that the Justice Department is overstepping its authority, given that states, and not the federal government, run elections and carry out voter-roll maintenance. Election officers in several states are refusing to comply with the demands, citing the need to guard voters’ privacy.

“We’re going to fight as far as we have to against this,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, told CNN in an interview. “I’m not going to give up the personal identifying information of my voters. It’s just not going to happen.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/01/politics/trump-voter-demands-social-security