Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has once again rejected a request from the Department of Justice for detailed information about voters in Maine.
The DOJ has requested voter information from roughly two dozen states as part of what the department says is an effort to protect election integrity by ensuring proper maintenance of voter rolls. Those requests were rejected by election officials in multiple states, including Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Minnesota.
On Monday, Bellows formally rejected a second, expanded request from the Trump administration.
“This request raises some of the same issues regarding the privacy of the voters files,” Bellows said in an interview. “Federal law under the constitution doesn’t envision that DOJ can get anything on anybody just because they want it.”
The original, July 24 letter to Bellows from the DOJ 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.
Bellows, a Democrat who is running for governor, rejected that request on Aug. 8, accusing the DOJ of “making sweeping and unexplained requests for information and records concerning Maine voters.” She wrote that Maine law does not allow her to release voters’ sensitive, personal information — such as driver’s license numbers, birth dates and partial social security numbers — and questioned why the DOJ wanted the information.
“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 at the time. “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 Justice Department then doubled down on the request. In an Aug. 18 letter, a DOJ official asserted that all voter information would be kept secure but that federal law preempts state privacy laws. But the department also added to the request, demanding copies of all original, completed voter registration applications submitted between Dec. 1, 2023, and July 1, 2025.
“To be clear, that means copies of all voter registration applications completed and submitted by prospective voters during that period,” wrote Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. “When providing a copy of the requested completed applications Maine must ensure that they are provided in unredacted format.”
Bellows, in turn, responded in writing that she found it “difficult to understand what possible legitimate investigative purpose could be served by such an undifferentiated request for all registration applications in a 19-month period.” She also pointed out that Maine’s roughly 480 municipalities — not her office — maintain original copies of voter registration applications.
During an interview with Maine Public, Bellows called the DOJ’s requests a “fishing expedition” that ignores the fact that U.S. Constitution makes clear that the states, not the federal government, are in charge of elections.
“The DOJ demands are really a sideshow,” Bellows said. “It is beyond their purview and we hope that they will drop these demands. If they don’t, we’ll wait to see them in court.”
That latter comment appears to be channeling a similar one made by the Democratic Gov. Janet Mills — the woman Bellows hopes to succeed — when retorted “See you in court” to President Trump’s threats to cut off federal funding unless Maine prohibited transgender athletes from competing in girls’ athletic competitions.
Asked for comment on Monday, the DOJ said the agency has an obligation to ensure the accuracy of voter lists.
“Clean voter rolls and basic election safeguards are requisites for free, fair, and transparent elections,” Dhillon said in a statement. “The DOJ Civil Rights Division has a statutory mandate to enforce our federal voting rights laws, and ensuring the public’s confidence in the integrity of our elections is a top priority of this administration.”
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
