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What are voter rolls and why does Pam Bondi want them? AG pens letter to Tim Walz after Alex Pretti shooting
Attorney General Pam Bondi penned a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, allegedly seeking access to state voter rolls after Alex Pretti's fatal shooting.
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday penned a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, allegedly seeking access to the state voter rolls. It came after Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, was fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis.
This is not the first time the AG has sought access to state rolls, even as multiple states including Minnesota and Arizona have refused access. However, Bondi directly linked ICE operations in the state with access to these state rolls, as per recent allegations.
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy alleged that Bondi was leveraging ICE action for access to these rolls. “Pam Bondi just sent a letter to Minnesota officials saying ICE will leave if the state turns over its voter database to Trump. Guess what? This has never been about safety or immigration. It’s a pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states,” he said in a video. Notably, Connecticut is among 23 states who have not turned over voter roll data and is being sued by the DOJ, alongside Arizona.
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A section of Bondi's letter to Walz was also shared by Natasha Korecki of NBC News. “In the wake of another fatal shooting in Minneapolis AG Pam Bondi sends Gov. Walz a letter today making several asks,” she noted on X.
What are voter rolls and why does Pam Bondi want them?
Voter rolls are official lists that state or local election authorities maintain. They contain the names and personal information of all registered voters within a specific jurisdiction. These rolls normally include sensitive data like full names, birth dates, and residential addresses. In many cases, they might also have the partial Social Security numbers or driver's license numbers.
Bondi wants access to these rolls with the intention of the sake of election integrity, and to ensure federal compliance checks take place. However, critics have alleged that the AG wants this access to come up with a national voter database for political purposes. They have further alleged that the data might also be used to wrongfully purge eligible voters from rolls.
Arizona has refused to turn over these lists, saying that handing over unredacted information of this nature was in violation of state privacy laws.
