Trump DOJ expands voter roll crusade, sues five more states — including four red ones

The Justice Department sued five new states Thursday demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well.

The lawsuits bring the total number of jurisdictions sued by DOJ for access to their voter rolls to 30.

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The new lawsuits target Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia and New Jersey — the first four are led by Republican election officials. Their refusal to turn over sensitive voter data undercuts the narrative that this is a partisan standoff between blue states and the Trump administration.

Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson (R), the state’s chief elections official, condemned the lawsuit, accusing the DOJ of overreach.

“Neither state nor federal law entitles the Department of Justice to collect private information on law-abiding American citizens,” Henderson wrote in a statement. “Utahns can be assured that my office will always follow the Constitution and the law, protect voters’ rights, and administer free and fair elections.”

At issue is whether the DOJ can compel states to hand over complete copies of their centralized voter registration databases, including names, addresses, birthdates, driver’s licenses and Social Security information.

“The Justice Department will continue to fulfill its oversight role dutifully, neutrally, and transparently wherever Americans vote in federal elections,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a press release. “Many state election officials, however, are choosing to fight us in court rather than show their work. We will not be deterred, regardless of party affiliation, from carrying out critical election integrity legal duties.”

In each new lawsuit, as in most previous ones, the DOJ leans on a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to argue it has broad authority to demand the records.

The department argues that if states refuse, courts have only a narrow role to compel them to give the department the records.

In plain terms, the DOJ is again telling courts they should not question why the department wants the data — only whether the state refused to hand it over.

The department also ties its demand to the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, arguing it must review the databases to assess how states maintain their voter rolls. In each new filing, the DOJ asked the court to “Order Defendant to produce such other federal election records demanded by the Attorney General to ascertain Defendant’s compliance with HAVA and the NVRA”

That sweeping language may signal the department may eventually seek additional election records beyond voter registration.

But election officials in both red and blue states have raised concerns over privacy and states’ rights — warning that unredacted statewide lists contain sensitive personal information and that state law restricts how that data can be shared.

The pushback has already found traction in court.

Federal courts dismissed three earlier DOJ voter roll lawsuits, including cases against Michigan, Oregon and California. In those rulings, courts rejected the department’s legal theory that the 1960 Civil Rights Act gives it near-automatic access to unredacted statewide databases.

On Wednesday, the DOJ appealed all three dismissals, sending the fight to federal appellate courts and signaling it is prepared to press forward despite repeated setbacks.

The new wave of lawsuits suggests the department is not retreating — it is doubling down.

The fact that four of the five newly targeted states are led by Republicans is significant.

It underscores that resistance to the DOJ’s demands is not confined to Democratic jurisdictions. Even GOP election officials are declining to turn over the full voter databases, sharing similar concerns with Democratic officials.

For pro-democracy advocates, the stakes are high. If any court accepts the DOJ’s argument, it could establish precedent allowing the federal government to compel states nationwide to produce centralized voter rolls — including sensitive identifying information — with limited judicial scrutiny.