New Hampshire is among the states targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice seeking information about its voting system, including a request for a complete copy of the state’s voter registration list. The inquiry for sensitive voter information comes as the Trump administration continues to make false claims about the validity of election results.
In a June 25 letter, officials from the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division asked New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan for information about a range of election policies, including how the state registers voters, removes deceased residents from voter rolls, and identifies non-citizens who may seek to register.
The letter also requests a copy of New Hampshire’s statewide voter registration list: “Please include both active and inactive voters,” the letter says.
State officials were given 30 days to comply with the request.
The inquiry appears to be part of a national effort in which at least nine states have been targeted for more information about their voting systems.
According to a recent story in the Washington Post, local election officials have warned that the Trump administration may be attempting to “try to build a national file that includes personal information about voters or impose rules that would boot eligible voters from the rolls and make it harder to cast ballots.”
Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma and Wisconsin have also received similar requests about their voting systems, according to the article.
NHPR was provided a copy of the letter sent to Scanlan from the U.S. Justice Department. According to a spokesperson for Scanlan’s office, “we had a conversation with them about New Hampshire statutes relative to the availability of voter checklist information and made them aware of RSA 654:45.”
She added that “no further action has been taken or requested.”
The state statute cited by the New Hampshire Secretary of State mandates that the statewide voter database — which contains information about how people registered to vote, as well as other sensitive information — “shall be private and confidential” and not subject to any records requests.
However, towns and cities are required to make public updated lists of all active voters, including their names, addresses and any political party affiliations, and the state sells statewide voter lists to political parties.
The spokesperson for the New Hampshire Secretary of State declined to say who was involved in the conversation with federal officials, or when that call took place.
Over the weekend, Trump continued to reiterate false claims about election integrity, writing about the need for an investigation into the “rigged and stolen election of 2020.” There is no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud, in New Hampshire or nationally.
State officials have long championed New Hampshire’s approach to voting, including the broad authority town and city election officers have to run their elections. The state strictly limits who may vote by absentee ballot, and uses electronic ballot counting machines that do not connect to the internet.
“We follow the KISS principle: Keep It Simple,” Scanlan told reporters prior to the 2024 election. “And because of that, the process is transparent. It is observable. We can trust the results.”
Despite the safeguards, state Republicans have adopted a sweeping set of changes to election laws in recent years, including a new requirement that all first-time voters in the state show proof of their U.S. citizenship in the form of a birth certificate, passport or naturalization papers at the polls when they register. That policy is currently being challenged in federal court by a coalition of voting groups.
As part of that lawsuit, the ACLU of New Hampshire requested that the Secretary of State’s office turn over a partial copy of the statewide voter database, in an effort to determine how many people may be impacted by the new voter registration rules.
Lawyers for the New Hampshire Department of Justice pointed to the state statute that prevents disclosure of the database, and claimed it was too great a security risk.
But a federal judge granted the ACLU’s request, and noted that the database was shared as part of a previous lawsuit with no issues, and that enough safeguards were in place to prevent unauthorized access.
