Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is once again pushing back against a Justice Department request for a copy of Maine’s voter registration files.
Bellows struck a much more diplomatic tone in her official response than when she told the Department of Justice to “jump in the Gulf of Maine” during a press conference last month.
But Bellows, a Democrat who clashed with President Donald Trump’s campaign during last year’s election, did not appear to offer the Justice Department any information that was not already publicly available or that had previously been supplied to a federal elections commission. She also said that the U.S. Constitution grants states, not the federal government, the authority to administer federal elections.
“Given the surprising — indeed, to our knowledge unprecedented — scope of DOJ’s requests for information and records, I ask that DOJ please provide an explanation of why it is making those requests to Maine,” Bellows wrote to Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Gates on Friday. “If DOJ is investigating voters in Maine or state elections administrators for potential violations of federal law, I ask that the DOJ provide the specific federal laws that it believes may have been violated in Maine and all facts supporting DOJ’s contentions.”
The original, July 24 letter to Bellows from the Justice Department asked for a complete copy of Maine’s statewide voter registration list, including “all fields within that list.” The letter also asked for a list of election officials responsible for maintaining that list as well as for detailed information about the state’s efforts to update the voter rolls. The Justice Department also requested a list of registered voters who were deemed ineligible to vote since 2022 because they were found to be noncitizens, “incompetent” or were prohibited because of a felony conviction.
Bellows, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor next year, expressed “grave concerns” about the sweeping records request. She pointed to state law that prohibits her office from sharing some sensitive, personal information in voter files, adding “I am unable to comply with DOJ’s request.”
Bellows also provided details about the state’s efforts to maintain accurate voter rolls, including her office’s cancellation of roughly 180,000 registrations this year based on voter address confirmation letters. And she noted that Maine does not prohibit convicted felons from voting and allows people with mental illness who are under “guardianship” to vote unless they meet very specific criteria.
The Justice Department has requested copies of voter registration lists from at least 15 states, according to tracking by The Associated Press.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
