Civil Rights Groups Ask Judge to Protect Voter Information Seized in Georgia

Pointing to Donald Trump’s stated desire to federalize the upcoming election and his administration’s efforts to acquire the voter rolls of nearly all states, a coalition of civil rights groups including the NAACP is asking a federal judge to protect the voter information that the FBI seized as part of its raid of an elections facility in Fulton County, GA.

“The seizure of records swept up sensitive voter data, such as personal information and records that show how individuals voted, with no apparent restrictions on how the government may use that information,” the groups’ motion stated.

Robert Weiner, director of the voting rights project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which filed the motion on behalf of the civil rights organizations, said there are “serious concerns about what the Trump administration could do with the voting records of thousands of people from Fulton County.

“When people registered to vote, they did not sign up for the release of their private information and social security numbers, especially not to politicians and their loyalists bent on advancing debunked conspiracy theories, purging eligible voters from the election rolls, and undermining our democratic institutions,” he added.

Ever since Trump lost Georgia in the 2020 election, the Peach State has become an obsession of his and played a central part in his Big Lie.

Therefore, the seizure of the ballots in January, as well as the presence of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard at the raid, has raised not only eyebrows but also concerns that his administration is looking for some pretext that justifies rigging the midterms.

The lawsuit is trying to make that more difficult.

“Having already failed to overturn the valid results of the 2020 presidential election by invoking false claims of widespread voter fraud, promoting fake electors, and inciting a violent insurrection, Trump and his minions are refusing to give up the ‘lost cause,’ trampling even more voting and privacy rights in the process,” said Damon Hewitt, the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

He added that the administration’s actions are “part of a larger pattern” and are taking place in the same jurisdiction where Trump demanded in 2020 that GOP election officials “find” him the votes needed to overtake Biden.

However, not only did they refuse to succumb to his pressure, but various lawsuits and audits never turned up any evidence that the election was “stolen,” as the president wrongly keeps claiming.

But Trump clearly hasn’t given up… and he can now rely on subservient lackeys like Gabbard, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Kash Patel to do his bidding with the goal of, as Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said this weekend, “[making] sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country.”

Hewitt calls this concerted effort a “broadscale assault on fair elections on many fronts, from going after voting records and squeezing out Black voters through redistricting, to improperly purging voters from the rolls and making it harder for everyone to vote.”

Of course, even if the courts rule in favor of the civil rights groups, there is very little in this administration’s behavior that gives us confidence that it will abide by that decision, especially because the stakes in the upcoming midterms are so high for the GOP in general and the most lawless members of this administration personally.

However, it is important to call out early what is happening and what Trump is trying to do so that voters everywhere can take the necessary steps to make sure that they are registered in November and that their ballots will count.