PORTLAND — Maine leaders fear the Trump administration is suing to obtain the state’s voter registration data to compile its own national database, an assistant attorney general for the state argued in federal court Thursday.

The Department of Justice sued Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows in U.S. District Court last fall to compel her to turn over voter registration lists, which would include such information as voters’ Social Security and driver’s license numbers, as well as their party affiliation.

Maine is asking a federal judge to dismiss the DOJ’s lawsuit, alleging it would be unlawful for the federal government to take charge of running voter registration rolls.

“This is about process and whether Maine has the right process,” Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Bolton said during the hearing. “It’s not about, ‘Are X number of deceased people on the rolls?’ It’s not the federal government’s job to do that.”

James Thomas Tucker, an attorney for the DOJ, said the department needs Maine’s data to ensure the state is complying with federal voter laws.

“There is not going to be a national voter registration database,” Tucker said in court.

Maine is one of 29 states, as well as the District of Columbia, being sued by the DOJ for voter data, according to the agency. The department has reached agreement with about a dozen other states, out of court, to access registration information, according to a report from the Brennan Center in February.

Maine is legally required to maintain current and accurate voter lists, which attorneys on both sides agreed the DOJ has the authority to enforce. Attorneys disagreed on what counts as enforcement. Bolton argued the DOJ has failed to provide a “factual basis for its demand of how it planned to store, use or disseminate that data.” Tucker said the department doesn’t need one.

Chief U.S. District Judge Lance Walker did not reach a decision on the state’s request immediately after Thursday’s hearing.

In addition to suing Maine under two voter-specific laws, the DOJ has also claimed the state is violating the Civil Rights Act, which requires election officials to “preserve and on request produce registration records pertaining to federal elections.”

Referring to the Help America Vote Act, Walker told Tucker during Thursday’s hearing: “It seems that you are bringing a civil rights action in hopes that this will help to require disclosure of these lists from the secretary of state, because the HAVA action doesn’t otherwise have a disclosure application.”

“There is no specific records production requirement under HAVA, and the United States recognizes that,” Tucker said.

Bolton noted that the DOJ has not alleged any other civil rights violations, such as voter discrimination.

The DOJ requested voter data from Maine twice before suing, in letters that Bellows received and responded to in July and August last year. While Bellows did not agree to turn over Maine’s data, Bolton said her office replied “in great detail,” sending a six-page, single-spaced list of Maine’s data-keeping process.

The DOJ did not ask for more details about Bellows’ responses, which Bolton said “suggests they went into this actually knowing nothing about Maine’s voter registration program.”

Several advocacy groups opposed to the DOJ’s lawsuit were also in court Thursday, arguing that if the federal agency were to succeed in its lawsuit, it would compromise Mainers’ right to privacy. More than a dozen former DOJ employees have also criticized the department’s approach in court filings, claiming the lawsuit oversteps the federal government’s jurisdiction.

“That information is sensitive private information and could put a burden on the right to vote if it is disclosed freely,” attorney Sejal Jhaveri for the League of Women Voters of Maine argued in court.

Zachary Heiden from the ACLU of Maine asked Walker to consider statements that federal officials have made out of court about “what they intend to use this data for,” including remarks in Minnesota about wanting voter data there to help with immigration enforcement.

“Which contradicts some of what they’ve said in these court filings,” Heiden said in court. “You put those things together, and it does raise all sorts of concerns.”

Tucker said Walker could “set parameters of how the data can be used” in any order compelling Maine to turn over its voter registration data. Tucker argued the department’s dozens of lawsuits and other requests for voter registration access only seem unusual now because federal voter laws were never fully enforced.

“We’re not targeting any particular state,” Tucker said. “We’re simply looking at all states to make sure there’s been compliance.”