By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan pushed back against President Donald Trump’s executive order, issued Tuesday, directing the creation of a nationwide list of verified eligible voters.
Scanlan, who is being sued by Trump’s Department of Justice for refusing to provide voter registration information, which the administration claims is violating the Civil Rights Act, said the federal government cannot usurp New Hampshire’s express constitutional authority to run elections and cannot compel New Hampshire to violate state and federal election statutes, including those that protect the privacy of voter information.
“The Federal Constitution grants each state the authority to determine the time, place, and manner of elections. New Hampshire has long exercised that authority in a manner that ensures elections are secure, transparent, and trustworthy,” the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s statement said.
It added New Hampshire has limited excuse absentee voting and secure procedures to protect the integrity of absentee voting.
House Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson, D-Exeter, said: “New Hampshire Republicans made our state the testing ground for voter suppression efforts and since then, nearly 300 Granite Staters have been turned away from the polls.
“It is no surprise to see them in lockstep with President Trump. This executive order is about manipulating which citizens can participate in elections, so a President with record low approval can retain his dying grip on power. It won’t work,” Simpson said.
In September, 2025, the Trump Administration filed suit in Federal District Court asking it to find the state is violating Title II of the Civil Rights Act for refusing to provide the registration list, with all fields including a person’s driver’s license number, and the last four digits of their social security number.
The case has been assigned to Associate Justice Joseph LaPlante and is case 1:25-cv-00371. The case is pending.
Scanlan ‘s office said New Hampshire has strong voter registration procedures that ensure voters are United States citizens while assisting voters who need help obtaining documentary proof of their qualifications.
Trump’s executive order is likely to face legal challenges with the November mid term elections looming.
Newsweek reported the order calls for the Department of Homeland Security, working with the Social Security Administration, to compile lists of eligible voters in each state. It also seeks to bar the U.S. Postal Service from delivering absentee ballots to individuals not included on those state?approved lists, though Trump’s authority to mandate Postal Service operations is likely limited.
“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It’s horrible what’s going on,” Trump said as he signed the order. “I think this will help a lot with elections.”
Officials in Oregon and Arizona said they would sue following the issued order.
Alexandra Chandler, director of Protect Democracy’s free and fair elections program, told Newsweek via email, “This executive order is more like an attempted executive override of the states’ authority to run our elections. Meant to solve for a problem that exists only in the false rhetoric of the Trump administration and its political fortunes, the EO is a classic example of their playbook to deceive the American people and disrupt the election process in order to deny any future results that don’t suit them.”
In September, 2025 when the federal Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced the filing of federal lawsuits against six states — California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania — for failure to produce their statewide voter registration lists upon request a statement for the administration read:
“Clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Every state has a responsibility to ensure that voter registration records are accurate, accessible, and secure — states that don’t fulfill that obligation will see this Department of Justice in court.”
“States are required to safeguard American elections by complying with our federal elections laws,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division who signed the NH case. “Clean voter rolls protect American citizens from voting fraud and abuse, and restore their confidence that their states’ elections are conducted properly, with integrity, and in compliance with the law.”
According to the lawsuits, the Attorney General is uniquely charged by Congress with the enforcement of the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, which were designed by Congress to ensure that states have proper and effective voter registration and voter list maintenance programs.
The Attorney General also has the Civil Rights Act of 1960 at her disposal to demand the production, inspection, and analysis of the statewide voter registration lists, it stated.
Additional states have also been sued for failure to produce voter rolls including Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, New Jersey, Virginia, Arizona and Connecticut.
Anna Sventek, spokesman for the New Hampshire Secretary of State, said while the suit is still pending, the public can receive updates by typing in the following info on PACER https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov/csologin/login.jsf
Case: United States v. Scanlan
1:25-cv-00371 | U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire