Imperfect Paradise: The Trump Administration wants your confidential voter data. What’s behind their battle with CA and other states?
Norco 80
LAist Studios
3.7 • 889 Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The legal battle with the Trump administration to get access to your sensitive voter data began in Orange County, but is now playing out nationally. The outcome could affect hundreds of millions of people across the country and determine how the federal government uses your private voter information. Shortly after suing Orange County, the Justice Department sued California and 22 other states, along with Washington D.C., for their full voter files. The Trump administration suffered its first legal setback this week with a federal judge’s ruling to dismiss the DOJ’s lawsuit against CA. But the legal and political battle is far from over. LAist Orange County Correspondent Jill Replogle dives into the Trump administration’s unprecedented push for states’ voter rolls, what’s behind it, and how it could end up in the Supreme Court.
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Transcript
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| 0:35.6 | Drivers license information, social security numbers, and other sensitive information about |
| 0:41.5 | yourself. The Trump administration is suing California to force it to share the complete |
| 0:46.6 | unredacted data, including this kind of confidential information for more than 23 million voters. |
| 0:53.2 | A federal judge in L.A. ruled in favor of California |
| 0:55.8 | on Thursday, saying that the federal government doesn't have a right to the personal information |
| 1:00.2 | of the state's voters. But that's not the end of the battle. The Trump administration is suing |
| 1:05.4 | at least 22 other states and D.C. for their voter files. The Federal Justice Department says it needs this information |
| 1:12.2 | to make sure states are preventing against voter fraud. But critics worry that they have other |
| 1:17.0 | motives and are actually trying to amass a national voter file, something that's never been done |
| 1:22.5 | before. In this episode of Imperfect Paradise, we ask what's behind the Trump administration's quest to collect the personal information of tens of millions of voters? |
| 1:33.3 | What could be done with that information? |
| 1:35.8 | And why are election officials in California and around the country resisting the federal government's demands? |
| 1:43.7 | LAist Orange County correspondent Jill Reppelgo has been reporting on the |
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