DOJ sues five more states for full voter rolls, bringing nationwide campaign to 29 states

On February 26, 2026, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced that it had filed federal lawsuits against five states — Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, and New Jersey — for failing to produce their full statewide voter registration lists upon request. The Department said the filings brought its nationwide total to 29 states plus the District of Columbia. Attorney General Pamela Bondi framed the suits as election-integrity enforcement, saying "accurate, well-maintained voter rolls are a requisite for the election integrity that the American people deserve," while Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division said state officials were "choosing to fight us in court rather than show their work" and that the Department "will not be deterred, regardless of party affiliation."

According to the lawsuits, the Attorney General claims authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to demand the production, inspection, and analysis of complete statewide voter registration lists, which she says can be cross-checked for "improper registrations." The complete files DOJ seeks can include voters' names, addresses, dates of birth, and partial Social Security or driver's license identifiers. Four of the five states sued in this round — Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and West Virginia — are Republican-led, underscoring that the data demand has reached across party lines.

The February 26 filing is one discrete act in a sustained 2026 campaign to compel states to surrender copies of their centralized voter-registration databases — an assertion of federal control over election administration that the Constitution's Elections Clause (Art. I, Sec. 4) assigns primarily to the states, with Congress empowered to override. By the date of these suits, federal courts had already dismissed several earlier DOJ voter-roll suits, rejecting the Department's theory that the 1960 Civil Rights Act grants near-automatic access to unredacted statewide databases. The same campaign is the subject of this archive's March 27, 2026 entry on DOJ's admission in United States v. Amore (D.R.I.) that "duplicate and deceased" analysis of obtained data had already begun.

Updates

2026-03-24 — DOJ dismissed Oklahoma voter-roll lawsuit after settlement [8, 9]

On March 24, 2026, the Justice Department voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit against Oklahoma Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax after Attorney General Gentner Drummond agreed to a settlement releasing the state's complete voter registration data — full names, dates of birth, addresses, and partial Social Security and driver's license numbers — to DOJ's Civil Rights Division. The settlement restricted DOJ's use of the data to assessing compliance with the National Voter Registration Act and Help America Vote Act, and came a day after two civic-engagement groups sought to intervene in the case to block the data's release. Drummond said Oklahoma remained "committed to both election integrity and the protection of personal information."

2026-07-14 — Federal court dismissed DOJ suit for New Mexico voter rolls [4, 5]

On July 14, 2026, a federal court in New Mexico dismissed the Justice Department's lawsuit seeking the state's complete, unredacted voter registration list, ruling that Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver was not required to produce the data under any federal law. The court found that the Department had failed to follow statutory requirements in its demand, omitting a stated "basis" and "purpose" for the production — such as a specific violation of federal voting law — that could have compelled disclosure. The New Mexico Attorney General and Secretary of State's office said the ruling preserved the integrity of the state's elections. The Department had sued New Mexico, along with five other states, in December 2025 as part of the same nationwide voter-roll campaign.

2026-07-29 — Federal judge dismissed DOJ suit for New Jersey voter rolls [6, 7]

On July 29, 2026, U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi dismissed the Justice Department's lawsuit seeking New Jersey's complete voter registration data with prejudice, ruling that the state's continuously-updated digital voter list was not a "record or paper" the state was required to produce under federal law; the Department said it would appeal. New Jersey's Attorney General called it one of seventeen district court rulings against similar federal voter-data demands nationwide.