The Trump administration has adopted a new and unusual tactic in its ongoing push to investigate voter fraud – obtaining the IP addresses of people who registered to vote online.
The FBI recently requested and received the IP address tied to an online voter registration in South Carolina with assistance from state and local officials, according to documents first shared with Axios.
“It’s unclear how often the FBI plans to take the extraordinary step of seeking IP addresses,” Axios reported, “but its push in South Carolina has broad implications nationwide: 43 states allow some form of online voter registration.”
Alan Helms, a veteran election official in York County, South Carolina, said it was the first time in his tenure that law enforcement had approached his office this way.
A former senior Justice Department official was more blunt, describing the request as an inappropriate “fishing expedition” into private voter data.
While an IP address doesn’t reveal a person’s identity, it can indicate general location and internet service provider — including whether a registrant was located outside the state or the country.
This South Carolina case is part of a broader, multi-agency federal effort tied to President Donald Trump’s persistent, unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the 2020 election. ICE has separately requested voter data in Texas and North Carolina, while the Justice Department is suing 30 states and Washington, D.C., seeking access to voter rolls from jurisdictions that have declined to share registration information voluntarily.
Critics argue the campaign is rooted in unproven allegations rather than evidence of systemic fraud. Robert Weiner, a former senior DOJ civil rights counsel, said the administration has pursued “every possible avenue to undermine the confidence in the integrity of the federal election process.”
The administration has pointed to New Jersey as an example of election vulnerabilities, after a software error led to roughly 6,600 noncitizens registering to vote.
New Jersey has since removed about 4,500 people from its rolls but is resisting federal demands for full access to its voter data. State officials note that some individuals initially flagged as ineligible may in fact be eligible voters.
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