President Donald Trump’s administration has lost a dozen court cases in a row in the process of trying to force states to turn over their voter data — and they’ve lost a thirteenth time.
The case concerns access to the voter rolls in West Virginia, a state that backed Trump by a roughly 2:1 margin at the ballot box — but where Republican Secretary of State Kris Warner has held firm against complying, because handing over the information would be a violation of state law.
As with every other state where the information was demanded, the Trump Justice Department sought every registered voter’s full name, birth date, address, and sensitive identifying information like their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
In a ruling handed down on Monday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, slammed the government — and also suggested their motives for demanding the data, when taken as a pattern in cases all around the country, may be less than pure.
“Given the lack of an adequate basis or purpose, one is left to wonder what the real purpose was for the Justice Department to go to the trouble of filing civil actions like this one all around the nation,” wrote Johnston. “Troubling though this question is, it is not before the Court at this time.”
Though West Virginia and a number of other states run by both parties have held firm, other states have complied either out of the gate, like Texas, or initially refused but later complied with minimal conditions attached, like Oklahoma.
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