The Justice Department seeks voter and election information from at least 19 states, AP finds

NEW YORK AP The requests have come in letters emails and phone calls The specifics vary but the target is consistent The U S Department of Justice is ramping up an effort to get voter figures and other poll information from the states Over the past three months the department s voting section has requested copies of voter registration lists from state ballot administrators in at least states according to an Associated Press tally Of those nine are Democrats five are Republicans and one is a bipartisan commission In Colorado the department demanded all records relating to the balloting and any records the state retained from the electoral contest Department lawyers have contacted leaders in at least seven states to propose a meeting about forging an information-sharing agreement related to instances of voting or electoral contest fraud The idea they say in the emails is for states to help the department enforce the law The unusually expansive outreach has raised alarm among several poll agents because states have the constitutional authority to run elections and federal law protects the sharing of individual records with the leadership It also signals the transformation of the Justice Department s involvement in elections under President Donald Trump The department historically has focused on protecting access to the ballot box In the present day it is taking actions to crack down on voter fraud and noncitizen voting both of which are rare but have been the subject of years of false alleges from Trump and his allies The department s actions come alongside a broader effort by the administration to investigate past elections and influence the midterms The Republican president has called for a special prosecutor to investigate the vote that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden and continues to falsely claim he won Trump also has pushed Texas Republicans to redraw their congressional maps to create more House seats favorable to the GOP The Justice Department does not typically engage in fishing expeditions to find laws that may potentially have been broken and has traditionally been independent from the president reported David Becker a former department lawyer who leads the nonprofit Center for Balloting Innovation and Research Now it seems to be operating differently he reported The department responded with an emailed no comment to a list of questions submitted by the AP seeking details about the communications with state administrators Requests to states vary and a few are specific Balloting offices in Alaska Arizona California Florida Illinois Maine Maryland Michigan Minnesota Nevada New Hampshire New York Utah and Wisconsin validated to the AP that they received letters from the voting section requesting their statewide voter registration lists At least one other Oklahoma received the request by phone Plenty of requests included basic questions about the procedures states use to comply with federal voting laws such as how states identify and remove duplicate voter registrations or deceased or otherwise ineligible voters Certain questions were more state-specific and referenced information points or perceived inconsistencies from a latest survey from the U S Balloting Assistance Commission an AP review of several of the letters revealed The Justice Department already has filed suit against the state referendum board in North Carolina alleging it failed to comply with a part of the federal Help America Vote Act that relates to voter registration records More inquiries are likely on the way There are signs the department s outreach isn t done It reported the National Association of Secretaries of State that all states would be contacted eventually stated Maria Benson a NASS spokeswoman The organization has urged the department to join a virtual meeting of its elections committee to answer questions about the letters Benson noted Several bureaucrats have raised concerns about how the voter figures will be used and protected Ballot bureaucrats in at least four California counties Los Angeles Orange San Diego and San Francisco announced the Justice Department sent them letters asking for voter roll records The letters required for the number of people removed from the rolls for being noncitizens and for their voting records dates of birth and ID numbers Agents in Arizona Connecticut Michigan Nevada New Mexico Rhode Island and Wisconsin verified to the AP that they received an email from two department lawyers requesting a call about a probable information-sharing agreement The goal according to several copies of the emails reviewed by the AP was for states to provide the authorities with information about instances of ballot fraud to help the Justice Department enforce Federal ballot laws and protect the integrity of Federal elections One of those sending the emails was a senior counsel in the criminal division The emails referred to Trump s March executive order on elections part of which directs the attorney general to enter information-sharing agreements with state balloting officers to the maximum extent practicable Skeptical state voting process bureaucrats assess how to reply Ballot personnel in several states that received requests for their voter registration information have not responded Selected stated they were reviewing the inquiries Authorities in chosen other states provided society versions of voter registration lists to the department with certain personal information such as Social Prevention numbers blacked out Elsewhere state authorities answered procedural questions from the Justice Department but refused to provide the voter lists In Minnesota the office of Secretary of State Steve Simon a Democrat noted the federal agency is not legally entitled to the information In a July letter to the Justice Department s voting section Simon s general counsel Justin Erickson mentioned the list contains sensitive personal identifying information on several million individuals He declared the office had obligations under federal and state law to not disclose any information from the statewide list unless expressly required by law In a latest letter Republican lawmakers in the state called on Simon to comply with the federal request as a way to protect the voting rights of the citizens of Minnesota Maine s secretary of state Democrat Shenna Bellows noted the administration s request overstepped the federal establishment s bounds and that the state will not fulfill it She revealed doing so would violate voter privacy The department doesn t get to know everything about you just because they want to Bellows mentioned Certain Justice Department requests are questionable lawyers say There is nothing inherently wrong with the Justice Department requesting information on state procedures or the states providing it explained Justin Levitt a former deputy assistant attorney general who teaches at Loyola Law School But the department s requests for voter registration statistics are more problematic he commented That is because of the Privacy Act of which put strict guidelines on information collection by the federal regime The regime is required to issue a notice in the Federal Register and notify appropriate congressional committees when it seeks personally identifiable information about individuals Becker disclosed there is nothing in federal law that compels states to comply with requests for sensitive personal material about their residents He added that while the outreach about information-sharing agreements was largely innocuous the involvement of a criminal attorney could be seen as intimidating You can understand how people would be concerned he mentioned Fields stated from Washington Associated Press state ruling body reporters from around the country contributed to this record