Department of Justice Probes Voter Fraud in Michigan

The U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon, has shared details about the Department of Justice’s ongoing investigation into claims of voter fraud in Wayne County, Michigan. This includes instances that appear to violate the Help America Vote Act.

In a separate matter, a federal judge in Arizona blocked an effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to access the state’s voter rolls. U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich—who was appointed by Trump—dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit, stating that the voter list was not relevant to the request made by the Attorney General.

The lawsuit had specifically targeted Arizona Attorney General Adrian Fontes, demanding the release of voter data. Fontes expressed satisfaction with the ruling, describing it as a triumph for voter privacy. He stated, “We will never comply with illegal requests that harm Arizona voters.”

Arizona now joins the ranks of seven states that have rebuffed the Trump administration’s requests for voter records. The information sought includes personal data such as dates of birth, addresses, and in some cases, Social Security numbers. Other states resisting these inquiries include Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Oregon.

Conversely, at least 13 states have either complied with or expressed intent to comply with the administration’s demands. This list includes states like Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, and Texas, among others.

The Trump administration argues that access to this information is necessary to verify that states are adhering to federal election laws and to check the citizenship status of individuals listed on voter rolls.

Interestingly, during the same week, North Carolina’s Board of Elections reported identifying around 34,000 deceased individuals on its voter rolls following a thorough audit against federal data. This was part of an initiative where the state submitted more than 7.3 million voter records to a federal verification database to help improve the accuracy of its voter registration lists. Importantly, this process doesn’t indicate that illegal votes were cast.

Sam Hayes, executive director of the State Board of Elections in North Carolina, remarked, “We expected to find some incidents, but this exceeded our expectations.”