The Pennsylvania Department of State has received a second letter from the Department of Justice asking for voter, election official, and duplicate voting information.
The August 3 letter, which asked for a list of all state and local election officials in charge of keeping voter registration lists from November 2022 until the letter’s receipt, was obtained by PennLive.
Additionally, the agency requested voter registration records for any registrants classified as noncitizens, declared incompetent, or convicted of a felony during the same time period, as well as additional details regarding the state’s attempts to prevent repeated voting.
The State Department has received a request for voter information from the Justice Department twice in the past month.
The second letter from DOJ to the Pennsylvania State Department asking for voter information bymontag
The Attorney General may file a lawsuit against states that violate the National Voter Registration Act, the DOJ stated.
DOJ letters have been sent to states nationwide asking for voter rolls and additional details on state initiatives to prevent voting fraud.
Voter rights and election integrity are violated, according to government ethics experts.
According to Public Citizen ethics expert Craig Holman, it’s extremely intrusive. The Trump administration’s attempts to suppress the democratic process are reflected in this.
The Pennsylvania voter registration list, which is publicly accessible online for $20, was also requested by the Justice Department.
According to a 2024 U.S. Election Assistance Commission study, the Commonwealth had 378,187 duplicate voter registrations. In the letter, the DOJ questioned why Pennsylvania’s duplicate voter registrations accounted for 4.49% of all registrations, which is almost three times less than the national average.
According to a 2025 state department report on voter registration, Pennsylvania has approximately 8.86 million registered voters.
The state’s efforts to guarantee military recruitment offices’ participation in voter registration were also questioned in the DOJ letter.
The SURE system is used by the 67 county election offices in Pennsylvania to keep track of voter registration rolls. According to the State Department report, the state works with local officials by offering voter education materials, multilingual registration forms, and information on voters who have relocated or died.
Since 2023, eligible Pennsylvanians who have obtained or renewed a driver’s license are automatically registered to vote.
Additionally, the DOJ letter stated that around 19,000 voter registrations with records in another state were discovered by the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a right-leaning legal organization well-known for suing local governments to carry out voter purges. Maureen Riordan, the acting head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, was a previous employee of the foundation.
This latest DOJ push is unprecedented, according to Holman.
Holman expressed his concern that Donald Trump’s tenure could spell the end of democracy as we know it. However, public opinion is our sole check, and we’ll see how that changes during the midterm elections.
In the report, Secretary of State Al Schmidt stated that the department will keep up its efforts to maintain accurate voter records, encourage voter registration, and boost civic involvement.
PennLive’s question regarding the Department of State’s response to the Justice Department request was not immediately answered.
Pennsylvania has until August 22nd to submit the data.
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