– 15 entries
Trump DOJ Campaign to Collect State Voter Rolls
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division pursued a nationwide campaign compelling states to hand over complete voter-registration databases, including partial Social Security and driver's-license numbers, under a legal theory federal courts had repeatedly rejected. Election administration is a power the Constitution assigns primarily to the states, and judges have questioned whether the department's real aim was a centralized federal voter file.
Through 2026 the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division pursued a nationwide campaign to compel states to surrender copies of their complete statewide voter-registration databases — names, addresses, dates of birth, and partial Social Security or driver's-license numbers — invoking a Civil Rights Act of 1960 theory that federal courts repeatedly rejected. The demand reached 29 states and the District of Columbia, crossing party lines, with the Department framing it as "duplicate and deceased" list maintenance even as judges probed whether the real aim was a centralized federal voter file or immigration enforcement. The Constitution's Elections Clause (Art. I, Sec. 4) assigns the administration of elections and the upkeep of voter rolls primarily to the states, with Congress — not the president — empowered to set overriding federal rules. This episode collects Standing Record's entries on that campaign, from the February 26 lawsuits expanding it to 29 states through the March 27 admission in United States v. Amore that analysis of the already-collected voter data had begun.
2026 Events (12)
DOJ opened investigation into Nevada Secretary of State Aguilar over refusal to share unredacted voter data
On September 4, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, in a letter from acting voting-section chief Eric Neff, told Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D) that his office was under federal investigation for refusing to hand over the state's complete, unredacted voter registration list, and separately ordered Nevada to preserve all 2024 election records beyond the retention period federal law requires. The letter arrived about three weeks after a federal judge dismissed a DOJ lawsuit seeking the same voter data, a ruling DOJ is appealing. Aguilar, whose office is in Carson City, called the letter "a pretty direct threat" meant to intimidate him into complying.
DOJ issued seven FBI subpoenas for Nevada voter data amid its separate court fight for the same records
On September 3, 2026, the Nevada Secretary of State's office confirmed it had received seven U.S. Department of Justice subpoenas, issued through the FBI, seeking voter-related information over the preceding three months. The disclosure came about three weeks after a federal judge dismissed a separate DOJ lawsuit that had sought Nevada's complete, unredacted voter registration list -- the department's 22nd consecutive district-court loss in a nationwide campaign for state voter rolls -- which DOJ has since appealed to the Ninth Circuit. Nevada's office did not disclose what specific information the subpoenas sought.
Court filing revealed DOJ officials sought Illinois voter data to purge noncitizens; emails showed staff directed to conceal purpose
On April 30, 2026, attorneys for the Illinois AFL-CIO and other intervening parties filed court documents in the federal NVRA lawsuit in Springfield, Illinois, including internal DOJ emails obtained through a public records lawsuit, showing that the Justice Department's demand for unredacted state voter rolls was aimed at identifying and purging suspected noncitizens. A June 2025 email from Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Gates explicitly described cross-referencing state voter rolls against the DHS SAVE immigration database for that purpose, while a November 2025 email from Acting Voting Section Chief Eric Neff directed staff to respond to states' questions about data use only with "We will use the data in a manner consistent with Federal law" and say nothing more. DOJ has filed similar NVRA suits in approximately 30 states and Washington, D.C.; six have already been dismissed.
DOJ concealed from courts and states its plan to vet voter rolls against DHS citizenship data, internal emails revealed
On April 21, 2026, a coalition of voting-rights groups led by Common Cause sued the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.; the filing, alongside roughly 1,200 pages of internal DOJ communications obtained through FOIA litigation, revealed the department had spent nearly a year collecting states' unredacted voter rolls to cross-check against the Department of Homeland Security's SAVE citizenship system while withholding that intent from courts and Democratic election officials. In a November 2025 email, DOJ Voting Section leader Eric Neff advised telling states only that the department would "use the data in a manner consistent with Federal law" and to "say nothing more," asserting that "no judge will have authority to limit us beyond a promise of Federal law compliance." The department had also sued 31 election chiefs to compel production of unredacted voter registration data.
DOJ sued Idaho to compel release of unredacted, sensitive voter roll data
On April 1, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane, asking a federal court to order him to produce the state's complete, unredacted voter registration list, including partial Social Security and driver's-license numbers for Idaho's roughly 1 million registered voters. The suit followed McGrane's refusal of DOJ's September 2025 demand and a December 2025 threat of litigation, and was the department's 30th such suit against a state for declining to hand over its full voter file.
DOJ admits in Rhode Island filing that voter-data analysis it denied in court has begun
One day after telling a federal judge at argument in United States v. Amore that no analysis had been conducted on the nonpublic state voter registration data in its possession, DOJ's Civil Rights Division filed a "Clarification of Record" admitting that preliminary internal analysis had in fact begun — specifically, identifying and quantifying "duplicate and deceased" registered voters in each state. The correction came a day after CBS News revealed DOJ was finalizing a deal to share voter-roll data with DHS, and after DOJ attorneys had assured judges in Connecticut and Minnesota that the data was not being analyzed or shared.
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 federal lawsuits against Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, and New Jersey for failing to produce their full statewide voter registration lists, bringing the Department's nationwide total to 29 states and the District of Columbia. DOJ asserted authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to compel production, inspection, and analysis of complete voter rolls — data that can include names, addresses, dates of birth, and partial Social Security or driver's license numbers — to cross-check for "improper registrations." The filings came after federal courts had dismissed several earlier DOJ voter-roll suits.
Nebraska handed the Justice Department its full voter file, including partial Social Security numbers, while an appeal was still pending
On February 12, 2026, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen transmitted the state's entire voter registration database to the U.S. Department of Justice, including every registered voter's full name, home address, date of birth and the last four digits of their Social Security, driver's license or state ID number. The transfer came one day after the Nebraska Supreme Court declined to enjoin it while an appeal by Common Cause Nebraska proceeded, and it formed part of a DOJ campaign that had by then sought voter files from 44 states and sued more than 20 of them.
Montana Free Press revealed Secretary of State Jacobsen told DOJ her office had satisfied its demand for the state's voter file
On February 4, 2026, Montana Free Press reported that emails obtained through a public-records request showed Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen's office had told the U.S. Department of Justice on December 2, 2025 that Montana had "fully satisfied" DOJ's August 14, 2025 demand for the state's complete voter registration list, which sought voters' full names, dates of birth, addresses, driver's license numbers, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. The reporting did not establish the precise date the underlying file was transmitted or confirm which of the requested sensitive fields it contained; Jacobsen's office subsequently denied providing "confidential" or "unredacted" voter data without explaining the discrepancy with its own written confirmation to DOJ.
AG Bondi demanded Minnesota turn over voter rolls, Medicaid/SNAP data, end sanctuary policies amid deadly ICE crackdown
On January 24, 2026, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi sent Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz a letter demanding the state hand over its voter rolls, Medicaid and SNAP recipient data, and repeal its "sanctuary" policies, framing compliance as a path to end the federal immigration surge in the Twin Cities. The letter came hours after Border Patrol agents fatally shot U.S. citizen Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon rejected the demand as "an outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota," and Gov. Walz called the voter-roll request unrelated to any legitimate concern.
DOJ sued Arizona and Connecticut to compel release of unredacted, sensitive voter roll data
On January 6, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division sued Arizona and Connecticut in federal court, seeking to compel both states to produce their complete, unredacted voter registration lists, including voters' full birthdates and full or partial Social Security and driver's-license numbers. The suits brought DOJ's nationwide campaign to 23 states and the District of Columbia; Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes had already rejected three DOJ requests for the data and told a department attorney to "pound sand." Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the lawsuits were needed to enforce federal election-integrity law.
DOJ demanded Minnesota's same-day voter registration and 'vouching' records over HAVA compliance concerns
On January 2, 2026, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon sent Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon a letter demanding records on the state's same-day voter registration and "vouching" system, in which a registered voter can attest to a new voter's residency, citing the 1960 Civil Rights Act and claiming the practice "seems facially inconsistent" with the Help America Vote Act. Minnesota's Office of the Secretary of State refused the demand on January 16, 2026, saying DOJ had identified no legal basis for the request and no evidence the state's practices violate federal law, and offered training materials on the process instead.
2025 Events (3)
DOJ sued Colorado to compel release of unredacted, sensitive voter roll data
On December 11, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division sued Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, seeking to compel production of the state's complete, unredacted voter registration database, including voters' full names, dates of birth, and driver's-license or Social Security number fragments. The suit, filed under the Civil Rights Act of 1960, followed Griswold's May and December 2025 refusals to share the unredacted data and a November 2025 letter, which she led with nine other secretaries of state, asking DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security to clarify how the collected data would be used and shared.
DOJ sued Oregon to compel release of unredacted, sensitive voter roll data
On September 16, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division sued Oregon and Secretary of State Tobias Read, seeking to compel disclosure of the state's complete unredacted voter registration list, including birth dates, driver's-license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers, and alleging violations of the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1960. The suit was part of a broader DOJ campaign that went on to demand voter data from dozens of states. A federal judge dismissed the Oregon suit on January 26, 2026, after Attorney General Pam Bondi sent Minnesota's governor a letter suggesting the data would be used to advance the administration's immigration-enforcement agenda.
Wyoming became the first state to hand the Justice Department its voters' driver's license and partial Social Security numbers
On August 28, 2025, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray transmitted the state's complete voter registration list, including driver's license numbers and partial Social Security numbers, to the U.S. Department of Justice in response to a June 2025 DOJ request, making Wyoming the first state to fully comply with the department's nationwide voter-roll collection campaign. The transfer drew little public attention until Wyoming Democrats and the League of Women Voters of Wyoming criticized it after DOJ's broader voter-data campaign drew national scrutiny.