Q&A with Secretary of State Steve Simon, who the Trump administration is suing over voter rolls

The U.S. Department of Justice is asking Minnesota to hand over its voter registration list. Secretary of State Steve Simon is refusing — and now the DOJ is suing Minnesota and five other states that have rejected the Trump administration’s requests for voter rolls.

The DOJ has reached out to more than half the states in recent months for voter lists, Stateline reported. Thursday’s lawsuit targeted six states that have refused to hand over the voter registration data: California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

President Donald Trump has long pushed false claims about American elections, including the lie that he won the 2020 election, and the claim that noncitizens are voting en masse. In March, Trump directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek information about suspected election crimes; The DOJ has since shared voter information it collected with the Department of Homeland Security.

The Reformer interviewed Simon, who has held his office since 2015, about the back-and-forth over voter rolls. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Charges filed in case of shot Itasca deputy; BWCAW campfire ban in effect

Plus: A new conservation easement protects more than 900 acres on North Shore; Cohasset to host comprehensive plan meeting; and more Northland HS sports results.

18-year-old charged with assault of Itasca County deputy shot in leg

Harper is accused of resisting arrest by Deputy Michael Cowan on May 4, 2026 as deputies attempted to serve an arrest warrant in Max, in rural northwestern Itasca County.

Rock Ridge boys take 4th in state team tennis tournament

It was the team's sixth-straight state tournament. Singles and duos from Rock Ridge and other rural Northland schools also hit the courts in tourney action.

Red Lake Falls softball team takes 4th in state tournament

Six rural Northland teams competed in state softball tournament in Mankato on June 2-5, 2026. The Barnum girls were consolation runners-up.

Red Lake Nation returns Roseau pilot's vintage airplane

The dispute drew the attention of international media and pilots' associations, raising concerns about the rights of distressed pilots while making emergency landings.

Red Lake returns plane to Roseau pilot; MN to disenroll 3K Medicaid providers

Plus: the Rock Ridge boys' tennis team took fourth at state and many Northland golfers will head to state next week after qualifying.

Rural Minnesota’s grocery stores are changing plans, hands

A Detroit Lakes food co-op and independent food stores like it show a resilient rural Minnesota.

Superior National Forest orders Boundary Waters campfire ban

The Emergency Forest Order will be in effect in all areas of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness beginning at midnight on June 6, 2026.

State says it will disenroll 60% of 'high-risk' Medicaid providers

The five-month process reviewed Medicaid providers in 13 service areas in all 87 counties, with more than 3,400 providers disenrolled by the state's Department of Human Services.

New work requirements from Medicaid prompt coverage concerns

Following high-profile fraud cases, Minnesota will join other states in overhauling systems to comply with stricter Medicaid work requirements.

Can you outline why you are saying ‘no’ to the Department of Justice’s request for Minnesota’s voter registration list?

This starts and ends with the law. We ask ourselves the question, what does the law say about whether or not we can transmit very private and personal information on millions of Minnesotans to the federal government? We’ve looked at the law, and our legal position — which we explained in two letters in painstaking detail — is that the law requires the Department of Justice to show two things, at least. First, why specifically they need this sensitive information, and second, what they’re going to do with this private information.

In other words, who are they going to share it with? For what purposes? What are the safeguards? How will it be stored and kept and transmitted? We believe that state and federal law imposes those requirements. So that’s the short answer, is our read and interpretation of the law is the Department of Justice has not yet done what it would need to do to be entitled to this kind of highly sensitive information on millions of Minnesotans.

I know you sent a letter to the DOJ back in July asking those questions — did you ever hear back from them?

They have never explained with specificity precisely how this information — this very sensitive personal information on millions of people — would aid their inquiry into compliance with federal law. Nor have they shared the other thing we asked about, which is, how are you going to use it? Who will you be sharing it with? How will it be safeguarded?

Even before this lawsuit was filed, our concern was heightened two weeks ago, when there was national reporting that the Department of Homeland Security had said that it covets this information. It has plans to use this information that DOJ is seeking from many states around the country, including Minnesota. That fact, that interest — that stated public interest by another federal agency — is something that the Department of Justice never, ever disclosed to us in any of our correspondence back and forth, which only heightens the concern that the DOJ has not been forthcoming, has not been open, has not been fully transparent about what exactly they plan to do with this sensitive information.

Does Minnesota maintain all of the data that the DOJ was requesting in its voter registration list, like Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers?

Yes, we do have that information.

Rock Ridge, DL boys and girls golf teams qualify for state

Seven rural Northern Minnesota teams and nearly 90 student-athletes in total will compete Tuesday-Wednesday, June 9-10, 2026, on courses in and around the Twin Cities.

Local primary elections take shape; Feds issue guidelines for Medicaid work rules

Plus: Grand Rapids hosts the state's annual wildland firefighting academy.

47-year-old man reported missing is found safe, sheriff's office says

The man was reported missing on June 1, 2026, six months after he was last seen by family and friends. He was last seen in Keewatin or Nashwauk.

Birch Bay Fire burns 30-35 acres; Lisa Demuth to run in GOP primary

And: Esports, girls team wrestling moving foward with MSHSL; Highway 6 bridge in Itasca County closes Monday.

Big Fork River Bridge closes for construction Monday

Traffic will be detoured starting Monday, June 8, 2026. The detour is expected to be in place through November.

Birch Bay Fire northwest of Ely estimated at 30-35 acres

The fire grew to its current size within hours of starting northwest of Burntside Lake on June 1, 2026, amid high temperatures, low humidity and light winds.

Demuth to run in GOP primary for governor, setting up 3-way election in August

The House speaker justified reneging on her pledge to abide by the endorsement by pointing to alleged voting irregularities at the convention in Duluth.

Hundreds of Northlanders to compete in state track and field meet

Area athletes to watch at the 2026 meet include Aitkin junior Ashley Asmus, Ely sophomore Violet Udovich and West Marshall seniors Emily Marquis and Markelle Pederson.

Klobuchar fights off challenge from left, wins DFL endorsement for governor

The endorsement wasn’t by acclamation, as Klobuchar no doubt desired. More than half of the delegates were first-time attendees, younger and more progressive-leaning than a typical year.

Burnsville man drowns in Emily; Qualls, Schwarze endorsed by GOP; Klobuchar, Flanagan by DFL

And: Six Northland teams will compete in the state softball tournament and Northern Minnesota will have over 250 entries in the state track and field meet.

Just to back up a little bit — why do states run elections, and why is that important?

The United States Constitution is clear that states are in charge of the time, place and manner of elections. That’s the exact language in the Constitution. The one exception, also in that constitutional provision, is that Congress may step in from time to time and assert authority over some aspects of the election system. The most prominent modern day example is the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

So the Constitution is clear: States are in the driver’s seat, unless and until Congress steps in. It says nothing about anyone else. It says nothing about the President of the United States or the executive branch or anyone else. It’s the states in charge, with guidance and select intervention by Congress. But that’s it. So that’s been our constitutional tradition since the founding, and that’s a system that has worked very well by and large in this country.

You were in office during Trump’s first term. From your point of view as Secretary of State, how have your interactions with the federal government been different during Trump’s second term compared to the first?

What we’re seeing now out of Washington D.C. is not normal, and this is another example of that abnormality. Normally, when the Department of Justice under either or both political parties asks states for elections-related information, it’s very specific. They will ask about one person, or a group of people, or some geographic unit based on some allegation of possible wrongdoing or discrimination. Now we’re seeing huge and sweeping data requests for millions of Minnesotans and tens of millions of Americans in the eight affected states that we have never seen before, for purposes that are murky at best and that have caused a lot of suspicion and alarm across the country — in red states, blue states and purple states. So it’s different this time around. It’s far more sweeping and ambitious and yet less clear.

What are your plans for 2026? Are you running for re-election?

I’ll have an announcement about that in the coming weeks.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.