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DOJ sued Georgia's secretary of state to compel release of voters' driver's license and Social Security numbers

On December 18, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in federal court in Macon, seeking to compel him to turn over Georgia's full voter-registration database including addresses, driver's license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers. Raffensperger had already given DOJ the state's public voter-roll data on December 8 but refused the additional sensitive fields, citing a Georgia statute barring their disclosure; DOJ's complaint alleges the refusal violates the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1960. The suit was one of four DOJ filed that day -- also against Wisconsin, Illinois, and the District of Columbia -- in a nationwide campaign that had by then sought voter data from at least 26 states.

Part of: Trump DOJ Campaign to Collect State Voter Rolls

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Georgia

Abuses documented

Actors

On December 18, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in federal court in Macon, seeking to compel him to turn over the state's complete voter-registration database, including voters' addresses, driver's license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers. DOJ had first requested the data on July 9, 2025, followed by two more demand letters in August. Raffensperger's office had already provided DOJ the state's public voter-roll data on December 8, but the office responded that day refusing to hand over the additional sensitive fields, citing O.C.G.A. 21-2-225(b), a Georgia statute barring disclosure of voters' sensitive information. DOJ's complaint alleges the refusal to produce the sensitive fields violates the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

The Georgia suit was one of four DOJ filed that day, alongside suits against Wisconsin, Illinois, and the District of Columbia, bringing the total number of such lawsuits to 22; an Associated Press tally found DOJ had by then asked at least 26 states for voter registration data as part of a broader nationwide campaign. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement that "the law is clear: states need to give us this information, so we can do our duty to protect American citizens from vote dilution." Raffensperger said his office had shared its "nation-leading list maintenance practices and public voter roll data" with DOJ in accordance with state law protecting voters' privacy. Common Cause Georgia moved to intervene in the case, with its executive director calling the suit "a tool of authoritarianism" intended to intimidate voters.

Updates

2026-01-23 — Federal judge dismissed suit for lack of jurisdiction [3]

U.S. District Judge C. Ashley Royal dismissed DOJ's suit without prejudice, ruling the Middle District of Georgia lacked subject-matter jurisdiction because the Attorney General's demand was not made, and the demanded records were not located, in that district.

2026-01 — DOJ refiled suit in the Northern District of Georgia [4]

By January 28, 2026, DOJ had refiled the case in the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta, where Raffensperger's office is based; the new case, assigned to Judge Eleanor L. Ross, was docketed as No. 1:26-cv-00485-ELR.

Why we recorded this

Election administration is primarily a state function, and voters' driver's-license numbers and partial Social Security numbers are sensitive data a state may lawfully decline to hand over to federal investigators absent a showing of need. DOJ sued Georgia's secretary of state for withholding exactly that data after he had already turned over the state's public voter roll, one of dozens of nearly identical suits DOJ has filed nationwide seeking the same categories of sensitive voter data. This archive records the case because compelling states to surrender individually identifying data on every registered voter, over the state's own privacy-law objection, is the kind of federal data demand the Fourth Amendment's individualized-suspicion requirement exists to check, regardless of which party controls the state being sued.

Sources

  1. Georgia Secretary of State sued by DOJ over refusal to share voter records — WGXA/WSBT (Sinclair) primary accessed September 12, 2026
  2. US Department of Justice sues Georgia over voter information — WABE investigative accessed September 12, 2026
  3. Federal judge tosses out DOJ lawsuit seeking sensitive voter data in Georgia — Georgia Recorder primary accessed September 12, 2026
  4. Trump's Justice Department revives lawsuit seeking sensitive voter data in Georgia — Georgia Recorder primary accessed September 12, 2026

See also