Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul today joined a coalition of 16 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief supporting California’s motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit demanding complete, unredacted voter registration information. 

The brief, filed in U.S. v. Shirley Weber, et al. in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, explains that the federal government’s demand is part of a larger effort to build a master database containing sensitive information about tens of millions of Americans. The brief asserts that the federal government lacks legal authority to compel states to turn over sensitive voter data and that such demands violate both the Constitution’s protection of state authority over elections and federal privacy laws. 

“The attempt by the federal government to obtain the voter information of millions of Americans is illegal and represents the latest move by the Trump administration to sow doubt in our elections process,” Raoul said. “The right to vote is one of the most fundamental rights we have as Americans, and I will continue to join with other attorneys general to protect voters’ constitutional right to vote.”   

The federal government has demanded voter information from 42 states and has filed lawsuits against seven states in addition to California. The requested data includes personally identifying information such as partial Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers, and could also include information about voters’ party affiliation, disability status and participation history. The unredacted information could expose participants in confidentiality programs designed to protect victims of domestic violence, sexual assault survivors, law enforcement officers and judicial officials.  
 
Raoul and the coalition’s brief places these voter data demands in the broader context of unprecedented federal efforts to collect and aggregate Americans’ personal information. Similar demands have been made for state SNAP and Medicaid data. Courts have already issued preliminary injunctions blocking some of these unlawful efforts through the work of Raoul and coalition partners. 
 
In their brief, Raoul and the coalition argue that the Department of Justice’s demands exceed its authority under three federal statutes the government cites in support of its efforts: the Help America Vote Act, the National Voter Registration Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1960. None of these laws authorize the sweeping collection of sensitive voter information, and the Civil Rights Act’s record inspection authority was specifically designed to investigate racial discrimination in voting – not to chill the right to vote. 

Additionally, their brief argues that the federal government has failed to comply with the Privacy Act of 1974, which requires agencies to follow specific procedures before collecting personal information and strictly limits what data may be collected and how it may be shared. The act specifically prohibits agencies from retaining records describing how individuals exercise First Amendment rights unless expressly authorized by statute. 

Earlier this year, Raoul worked with other attorneys general to successfully stop the federal government from giving Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” unauthorized access to Americans’ most sensitive personal information, including bank account details and Social Security numbers.

Joining Attorney General Raoul in filing the brief are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.