Judge rules Illinois does not need to turn over voter information to federal government

A new court ruling will keep Illinois from having to turn over its full list of voter information to the federal government.

The ruling came just days after the Illinois Board of Elections pushed back against threats from the Trump administration to prosecute states they claim allow illegal election activity.

Illinois was among 48 states that were facing a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice. So far, 19 of those states — Illinois now included — refused to hand over a current statewide voter registration list to the federal government.

On Friday, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in Illinois, saying the DOJ cannot compel the Illinois Board of Elections to release sensitive information about more than 8 million registered voters across the state.

The lawsuit sought a judge's order asking state election officials to release voter registration information — including residential addresses, driver's license numbers, and last digits of Social Security numbers.

The feds doubled down on getting all that information after a redacted list was submitted. A federal judge from the Central District of Illinois, headquartered in Springfield, dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against Illinois altogether on Friday — ruling that Illinois does not need to share any of the data requested by the feds.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Lawless dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning that the lawsuit cannot be filed again.

Election fairness and eliminating voter fraud have been major points in President Trump's second term so far.

Illinois is now joining 18 other states, including Arizona and Wisconsin, whose cases have been dismissed.