ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Justice has again sued Georgia for the state’s voter list — including voters’ personal information — days after a federal judge dismissed a similar lawsuit filed in the wrong court.
The Trump administration’s demand Tuesday is its latest attempt to force Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to turn over voter registration information as part of a nationwide effort to collect voters’ data.
Raffensperger’s office has said state law requires him to protect voters’ driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers and birth dates — the same information the DOJ wants for an investigation of voter registration accuracy.
“Georgia conducts as much (voter list) maintenance as it is permitted to do under federal law,” according to a court filing by Raffensperger’s office in the case dismissed last week.“… The DOJ is not entitled to confidential information about every Georgia voter.”
State election officials canceled nearly 471,000 voter registrations last year of people who moved or didn’t participate in recent elections.
Republicans in the Georgia Senate have sided with the DOJ and against Raffensperger, a fellow Republican who is running for governor against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Attorney General Chris Carr.
The Senate could soon vote on a nonbinding resolution that urges Raffensperger to comply with the DOJ.
Raffensperger’s office provided the DOJ with a public version of Georgia’s voter list that redacted voters’ personal information.
A federal judge dismissed the DOJ’s first lawsuit for Georgia’s voter list last week because it was filed in the incorrect judicial circuit.
The DOJ previously sued in Macon instead of in Atlanta, where the secretary of state’s office is based. The new lawsuit was filed in Atlanta.