Trump administration asked San Francisco's election chief for sensitive voter data

San Francisco Chronicle​

5 days ago

The Department of Justice has demanded private personal information about some people in the San Francisco Department of Election's system, a request the department has not yet complied with and said it is reviewing.
The request, dated July 9, asks the Department of Elections for five years' worth of records showing voters whose registration was canceled because the voter did not satisfy citizenship requirements. It also asks San Francisco's election chief to provide a trove of personal information about those people, including their voter registration application, voter registration record, voting history, date of birth, driver's license number and the last four digits of their Social Security number.
The same Department of Justice official, Maureen Riordan, demanded the same information from Orange County Registrar Bob Page in June. When Page refused to disclose what he said was personal information protected by state laws, the DOJ sued him.
John Arntz, the director of the Department of Elections, told Riordan on July 23 that he's reviewing the request and planned to respond no later than Aug. 29. He asked Riordan to detail 'the specific statutory authority for this request and whether records produced will be kept confidential within the Department of Justice.'
Election law experts previously told the Chronicle that the laws being cited by the DOJ in its demand to Orange County do not actually give the agency the authority to demand sensitive personal information from elections officials. The law cited by Riordan, the Help America Vote Act, requires local officials to coordinate with the state to maintain the voter rolls.
When Page offered to provide the data to the DOJ if officials there agreed to keep it confidential, the department instead filed a lawsuit.
The request for voters' personal information from San Francisco officials is just the latest such move from the Department of Justice, which has been seeking voter rolls and requesting to inspect voter equipment across the country, the Washington Post reported earlier this month. Such requests have alarmed officials in those jurisdictions because of the potential for federal interference with upcoming elections.The Trump administration's efforts to collect data on noncitizens comes amid the administration's aggressive mass deportation efforts. White House officials have promised to boost deportation numbers and demanded federal agents hit 3,000 immigration arrests per day.
The DOJ earlier this month requested information on noncitizens in custody in large California metros — something the San Francisco Sheriff's Office and the California Attorney General forcefully condemned.
Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said at the time his office would only respond to information requests 'consistent with local, state, and federal law' but that his priority was public safety and 'not politics.'
California Attorney General Rob Bonta responded angrily to the request, with his spokesperson adding Trump and the DOJ 'cannot bully our local law enforcement into breaking the law.'