{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://bynum.house.gov/media/press-releases/bynum-oregon-delegation-demand-reversal-trump-administrations-plan-suppress", "Bynum, Oregon Delegation Demand Reversal of Trump Administration's Plan to Suppress Oregon Voters", "2026-07-15", "2026", "2026-07", "Democrat", "House", "OR", "Janelle S. Bynum", "B001326", "bynum.house.gov", "bynum", "https://bynum.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Yesterday, Representatives Janelle Bynum (OR-05), Suzanne Bonamici, Andrea Salinas, Val Hoyle, Maxine Dexter, and Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley sent a letter to the Trump Administration, urging the administration to withdraw its threat against Oregon election officials over its plan to create a national voter database, warning that the proposal could jeopardize the voter registrations of millions of Oregonians.\n\n\u201cIt is clear that after these attempts to secure access to sensitive state voter data have been repeatedly rejected by the courts, you are resorting to public threats of prosecution and intimidation against elections administrators to coerce state officials to turn over their voter rolls and cede their constitutional duty to conduct elections to the executive branch,\u201d the lawmakers wrote in their letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.\n\nThe demand comes after the Trump administration threatened Oregon election officials with criminal prosecution over the administration\u2019s claim of noncitizens voting. For months, Trump has tried to chip away at voter registration and vote-by-mail in an effort to interfere in the consequential November midterms.\n\nEarlier this year, Trump issued an executive order requiring the creation of a national voter database, which would require states to submit their voter registration lists to the federal government for review. The order was put on pause after it was blocked in court. Trump continues to push passage of his Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act in Congress, which would undermine vote-by-mail in an illegal and unconstitutional effort to undermine the rights of states to control their own election systems.\n\nLast month, Oregon lawmakers led the charge against a new rule issued by the U.S. Postal Service that would undermine Oregon\u2019s vote-by-mail system.\n\nText of the letter can be found here and below.\n\nWe rebuke your threats against Oregon elections officials and demand the Department of\n\nJustice (DOJ) cease this targeted witch hunt of states\u2019 election administration ahead of\n\nconsequential midterm elections.\n\nOn July 7, 2026, the most recent threat was issued by Assistant Attorney General for Civil\n\nRights Harmeet Dhillon and comes following repeated failures by the DOJ to illegally\n\nattempt to obtain Oregon voter rolls containing sensitive voter information through litigation\n\nin order to create an unprecedented national voter database. It is clear that after these\n\nattempts to secure access to sensitive state voter data have been repeatedly rejected by the\n\ncourts, the DOJ is resorting to public threats of prosecution and intimidation against elections\n\nadministrators in order to coerce state officials to turn over their voter rolls and cede their\n\nconstitutional duty to conduct elections to the executive branch.\n\nElection officials across the country are on the frontlines of our elections, they already face\n\nunprecedented attacks and face personal safety concerns. We should be working to protect\n\nelection officials regardless of political affiliation, not using government resources to further\n\nintimidate election officials that are following all federal laws, and consistently administering\n\nelections that are safe and secure, as is the case in Oregon.\n\nThese efforts are a direct attempt to undermine vote-by-mail, which is used successfully by\n\ntens of millions of eligible voters every election. Despite these efforts, the courts have also\n\nrepeatedly blocked implementation of President Trump\u2019s executive orders that aim to restrict\n\nvote-by-mail. Faced with these combined failures, the DOJ is now attempting to coerce state\n\nelections officials with threats of prosecution in order to prevent Americans from voting.\n\nThese threats are a clear pattern in strategy to disenfranchise millions of voters in Oregon and\n\nnationwide and attack states\u2019 constitutional right to manage and oversee elections. We\n\ndemand that you immediately cease these efforts.\n\n###", 1, "2026-07-16T07:21:44Z", "2026-07-16T07:23:13Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://bynum.house.gov/media/press-releases/bynum-oregon-delegation-demand-reversal-trump-administrations-plan-suppress"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.75531005859375, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}