If you’ve ever dealt with a breach of your sensitive data, you know how frustrating it is. You have to call your banks, freeze your credit, and warn your friends and family. 

That’s one major reason Common Cause is stepping up to stop the Department of Justice (DOJ) from accessing your identifiable information — your driver’s license number, Social Security number, and other sensitive data tied to your voter file that could cause serious harm if exposed. 

After President Trump installed loyal election conspiracy theorists at the DOJ, they launched a wild goose chase to validate their baseless claims. 

After failing everywhere else, they now want the voter rolls — including personal data — from eight states. In response, Common Cause is fighting back with a lawsuit in Nebraska and moving to join similar cases in Minnesota and Pennsylvania. 

Here are three reasons it’s critical to stop the DOJ’s attempt to seize your personal information: 

It’s a massive, unprecedented federal overreach 

Local and state election officials — not the federal government — run elections in all 50 states.  States already have strong rules to verify voters’ identities, and those systems work. The federal government has never held a national voter database for a variety of reasons, but it will happen if the DOJ wins these lawsuits. That would radically reshape how elections function. 

It’s an open invitation to hackers 

Imagine one database containing your name, address, driver’s license or Social Security number, and other personal information — all stored on a federal server. That’s a goldmine for hackers inside and outside the country. We know from election security experts that other countries are actively monitoring and trying to influence American elections from afar. 

The DOJ already has access to publicly available voter information, but now it wants far more. Not only is that unnecessary; it exposes taxpayer dollars to massive liability when — not if — that database gets hacked. You’d essentially fund the payout for your own data breach.

It fuels a self-fulfilling conspiracy theory

The people trying to obtain your data have spent years spreading lies about elections and are desperate to prove themselves right. If they get the sensitive information state and local election officials use — and that database gets hacked — they will use the resulting chaos to claim voter fraud. 

It sounds like science fiction, but it becomes possible if DOJ conspiracy theorists get what they want. Let’s not pave the road to the very election chaos they keep predicting. 

That’s why Common Cause is fighting to protect you, and your data.