Lawyers for the Trump Administration are hoping to force Rhode Island to hand over detailed personal information about every registered voter.
According to a complaint filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Providence, the Justice Department claims the Civil Rights Act of 1960 gives Attorney General Pam Bondi “sweeping powers to obtain these records.”
But Rhode Island’s top election official disputes that.
“I think it’s a fishing expedition designed to undermine confidence in American elections,” Secretary of State Gregg Amore told Ocean State Media.
In a letter to state officials dated September 8, 2025, the Justice Department’s top lawyer for civil rights demanded granular information about the state’s voter rolls, including “the registrant’s full name, date of birth, residential address, his or her state driver’s license number or the last four digits of the registrant’s social security number.”
The DOJ sent similar requests to officials in at least 40 states, starting with Democratic and swing states. According to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, the department confirmed its plan to share the data with the Department of Homeland Security.
Rhode Island’s Amore, among others, refused to comply. In his September 16 reply to the Justice Department, he insisted the federal government is only entitled to information that is publicly available..
“While I am pleased to voluntarily provide you with the public voter rolls, as you requested, as Secretary of State, I must protect the personally identifiable information of Rhode Islanders,” Amore wrote.
He said, “the current presidential administration has a long track record of seeking to, and in some cases, succeeding in, interfering in the operation of elections and sowing seeds of distrust between the general voting public and the very election processes that maintain and further our democracy.”
That’s what led the Justice Department to sue Rhode Island and at least eight other states.
The administration accuses Amore of violating Section 303 of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which the government insists “grants the Attorney General of the United States the sweeping power to obtain these records.”
Amore insists Rhode Island and other states that have refused to comply are in the right.
Article 1, section 4 of the U.S. Constitution reserves for states the right to manage the “time, place, and manner of Congressional elections.”
“There are at least 6 other states, probably more as of today, that are arguing along the same lines that we are arguing,” he said. “I think we are on solid ground.”
The Trump Administration insists it is merely trying to ensure the state lists of registered voters do not include illegal immigrants, felons, and other individuals who are prohibited from voting in the midterm elections.
But Amore and other state officials see this push as a political effort by the White House to suppress voter participation and rig the midterm elections in favor of the Republicans.
Although the administration filed its lawsuit with the federal court in Rhode Island, it’s likely that with so many jurisdictions in play the issue will be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
