As the Trump administration’s attempt to collect voter registration information of New Yorkers heads to court, a long-standing voting rights organization say it’s seeking to intervene on behalf of voters.

“We’re seeing this as a pretty broad overreach from the DOJ,” Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of New York State Erica Smitka said of the U.S. Justice Department. 

That’s driver’s license numbers, partial Social Security numbers, or birthdates – sensitive private information the DOJ is asking New York to provide on all of its registered voters.

“Even that won’t really give them enough of a picture to see if a state is doing its job when it comes to ensuring that someone didn’t move in the last three months,” said Smitka. “So, it’s really just an attempt to gather all of this data, and their reasoning behind it isn’t that sound.”

The league has filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in the lawsuit the DOJ filed against the state last month.

Eight states, including New York, are being sued for refusing to hand over voter registration lists.

Spectrum News 1 reached out to the Department of Justice for comment on the League of Women Voters of New York State intervention efforts in the suit. The DOJ said “no comment.”

When the suits were filed last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “Every state has a responsibility to ensure that voter registration records are accurate, accessible and secure. States that don’t fulfill that obligation will see this Department of Justice in court.”

The department said it needs the information to safeguard elections. But political experts say voters should question these motives.

“Be concerned to the extent as to why the federal government is trying to do this,” said professor Jeff Wice of the New York Elections, Census and Redistricting Institute. “What are they looking for? What evidence do they have to have some need to look into New York elections, and for what purposes will they use the data they’re seeking? Will it be used for immigration, tax investigations? This is totally out of the ordinary.”