Just days after President Donald Trump alleged there was widespread voter fraud and election interference, the Department of Justice (DOJ) lost a major court battle: a federal district judge ruled it cannot have access to Connecticut’s voter registration data.
At the start of the year, the DOJ requested every state submit a list of not only registered voters—which is publicly available information—but also their Social Security numbers, voting history, and other private information. Attorney General Pamela Bondi sued Connecticut, 22 other states, and Washington, D.C. for refusing to comply with this order.
On Friday, July 17, Judge Kari Dooley of Connecticut ruled that the federal government does not have the authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to require the state to hand over a statewide voter registration list.
A district judge in New York struck down the DOJ’s lawsuit against the state for their voter roll data a week earlier.
“This Court does not write on a blank slate, and has the benefit of numerous (though non-binding) decisions by sister courts as to many of the issues presented,” Dooley wrote in her decision. “In short, because the Court concludes that Connecticut’s SVRL does not fall within the scope of Title III, the United States is not entitled to its production. The Court does not therefore reach the myriad of other issues raised by the parties.”
During the Democratic primary for the 2023 Bridgeport mayoral election, municipal cameras captured people submitting multiple absentee ballots into drop-boxes. Seven people were charged with offenses related to this voter fraud scheme. Two of these people pleaded guilty to charges involving voter fraud.
The DOJ did not bring up this instance in its complaint against Connecticut. The DOJ also did not claim that any voter fraud occurred in Connecticut during federal elections.
On Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont, Attorney General William Tong and other state officials held a press conference to reassure voters about the security of Connecticut’s elections.
“Last week, the president used primetime television to try to convince Americans that our elections can’t be trusted, and he did it without a shred of evidence,”Lamont said in a press statement released by his office. “Connecticut has spent its time building up our elections, and every vote here is backed by a paper ballot. That’s why our residents can vote with confidence.”
In March, the legislature voted to update the state’s election laws to implement more privacy protections for voters. Lamont signed a bill expanding absentee voting in May, so it is now available to all Connecticut residents.
“We are winning in court across numerous fronts to protect our democracy from the repeated demands of a president seeking to exert unlawful control over who can vote and how we cast our ballots,” Tong said in the press statement from Lamont’s office. “The Constitution is clear—the president does not control our elections, and he cannot micromanage and manipulate state [elections to] influence our free and fair elections. Despite the president’s anti-democratic efforts to sow chaos and confusion, Connecticut’s elections will remain fair, legal, transparent and accurate.”
More than half of the DOJ’s lawsuits against states concerning voter registration data have been dismissed.
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