Arizona's Democratic secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, has warned that Donald Trump is attempting to create a centralised database of all US citizens' personal information, which could be used to control who votes and target political opponents. Fontes described the effort as akin to 'apartheid in the United States' and compared it to actions taken by North Korea.
Fontes said the Trump administration is actively seeking voter files from 30 states, including Arizona, to amass what he called a 'master list' that would allow the president to declare someone an 'enemy of the state'. He argued that with such data, Trump could regulate opponents' access to bank accounts or healthcare.
A federal judge threw out a lawsuit from the US justice department against Arizona over its refusal to hand over its voter roll, ruling that the department was not entitled to the document under federal law. This marks the sixth court ruling against the administration in similar disputes, with judges in California, Oregon, Michigan, Massachusetts and Rhode Island also finding against the government.
Fontes, who was sued after declining to provide the data, said Arizona acted correctly in refusing the request. He dismissed the justice department's claim that the data is needed to root out voter fraud, stating that non-citizens do not vote and that the demand is an 'unprecedented invasion into the privacy of Americans'.
Arizona has been a focal point for election conspiracy theories since the 2020 election, when Trump loyalists attempted to overturn his defeat to Joe Biden. The state is now facing multiple federal investigations into its election procedures as the November midterms approach.
