GOP bill aims to force Minnesota to hand over voter rolls to federal government

Minnesota’s Republican congressional delegation is trying to put pressure on Secretary of State Steve Simon to comply with federal requests for the state’s voter rolls, the latest volley in a monthslong battle between the state and federal government over the data.

U.S. Reps. Pete Stauber, Tom Emmer, Michelle Fischbach and Brad Finstad are co-sponsoring a bill that would bar Simon’s office from receiving federal election-assistance funds until it cooperates with several U.S. Department of Justice data requests, including one for the state’s voter rolls that has escalated into a lawsuit.

Simon’s office has so far rebuffed those requests, arguing they violate state and federal data privacy laws. DOJ officials have said they want the data to assess Minnesota’s compliance with federal elections laws.

“Minnesotans deserve to know their election process is fair, accurate, and protected for the future,” Stauber said in a statement, adding: “If Governor Walz and Secretary Simon want federal election assistance funding, they need to get serious about election security.” A Stauber spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Minnesota has received more than $15 million from the federal government since 2018 to help beef up digital security for state and local elections systems, Simon’s office said.

The bill, which faces an uncertain future in Congress, is the latest attempt by Republicans and President Donald Trump to exert more influence over the nation’s elections, which are largely administered by state and local officials.

The DOJ has requested data from dozens of states, which elections experts worry could be used to relitigate Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen or undercut future elections. Most states, like Minnesota, have refused to comply. The DOJ has sued more than 20 states for the data.

“It is just another way of Republicans to attack Democrats as cheating and illegitimate when they win elections; it is not a serious bill,” he said.

Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric when he told a conservative podcaster on Feb. 2 that Republican officials should “take over” voting procedures in 15 states.

Though Trump did not name Minnesota, he made the comment just after referring to Minnesota as a “rigged state.” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi also recently reupped the DOJ’s voter roll request in a letter that Simon interpreted as an “apparent ransom” to end the ongoing immigration crackdown in Minnesota.

Simon, in a new statement, called the Republican bill an “irresponsible stunt.”

“[Federal] funding is an important part of keeping our elections secure and should never be used as a political bargaining chip,” he said.

The new Republican-backed bill, if it were to become law, could run into legal trouble, predicted Jason Marisam, a professor of law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. The U.S. Supreme Court has limited the types of conditions Congress can impose on federal spending to states, he said.

“When you look at this larger picture with the AG Bondi letter and this proposed bill, I think the state of Minnesota would have a strong argument that the federal government’s attempts to get this private voter data is coercive and unconstitutional,” said Marisam, who once worked as an assistant attorney general in Minnesota and represented Simon’s office in several COVID-era election cases.