“We stand by the integrity of Maine election officials at both the state and local level,” Bellows said in an exclusive interview with Democracy Docket. “Maine ranks consistently at the top of the nation in voter turnout because our voters have confidence in the strength of our systems. DOJ is targeting Maine and Oregon for political reasons. We won’t back down.”
Minutes later, at a press conference, Bellows suggested DOJ is deliberately going after Democratic election officials.
“Our neighbors in New Hampshire also rejected the Department of Justice’s voter request,” Bellows said. “So it is not normal that they are targeting just me and Oregon with these lawsuits. Why aren’t they targeting New Hampshire or Pennsylvania, who have Republican secretaries of state who have said no?”
“I say it again today: Go jump in the Gulf of Maine,” Bellows continued, echoing comments from when DOJ first asked for the records at issue. “It is unprecedented for the Department of Justice to expect that they can get the sensitive personal voter data of every voter in the country.”
The DOJ sued Maine and Oregon Tuesday, alleging that both states violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the Civil Rights Act of 1960 by refusing to provide full copies of their voter rolls that include individual voters’ private data.
The lawsuits are the latest escalation in DOJ’s dangerous campaign to obtain voter registration data from every state. The effort, which includes seeking private voter data like addresses and social security numbers, has alarmed state election leaders and voting rights experts.
Ariel Hayes, the executive director of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of States said DOJ’s lawsuits against Maine and Oregon “are designed to intimidate election officials and open the door for Trump and his allies to weaponize sensitive voter information for partisan gain.”
“Trump’s Department of Justice is trying to force states and their respective Secretaries of State to fulfill unprecedented voter data requests without providing any transparency or legal reasoning,” Hayes added. “This isn’t just a clear violation of voter privacy — it’s a major federal overreach and an attempt by a corrupt Department of Justice to attack Trump’s political opponents and undermine our electoral process.”
Maria Benson, the senior director of communications for the National Association of Secretaries of States (NASS), said that, “NASS does not weigh in on lawsuits.”
