Following a widespread outcry, the Justice Department has tapped the brakes on its ominous demand from earlier this week for 44 disproportionately minority counties in eastern North Carolina, as well as the state Board of Elections, to turn over years of voting records in what could only be a transparent fishing expedition to trawl for nonexistent cases of voter fraud.
Even more alarming, the records are being sought on behalf of ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that has become the symbol of the Trump administration's human rights abuses of immigrants and refugees. That suggests the opening of a new avenue for ICE and the DOJ to intimidate voters in communities of color. As the chair of North Carolina’s elections board said, “We have not been given a reason as to why ICE wants that information, and candidly, I can’t think of any reason for it.”
In response to the backlash, the DOJ said it wouldn't require the records be produced until after the election and would redact information on how any individual voted, but it hasn’t dropped its demands. The department had initially subpoenaed millions of documents, including more than 2 million ballots that could be traced back to individual voters, and demanded them by later this month. That raised further concerns with voting rights groups, since there would have been no way for elections boards to comply with the demand in the midst of preparing for a general election in just two months.
But even with the delay, the DOJ’s move may not succeed: The state Board of Elections decided to fight the subpoenas in a unanimous vote, meaning even Republican members are unhappy with the demand. But even if it ultimately fails, this far-reaching order is still deeply concerning—just as it was when Trump's bogus voter suppression commission unsuccessfully sought voter registration data from all 50 states last year—whether the Justice Department is trying to gin up more bogus claims of voter fraud, sow fear among voters of color, or both.