Protect Democracy and co-counsel represent Common Cause and four individual voters in a lawsuit to stop the Department of Justice (DOJ) from building an unprecedented national voter database. The DOJ plans to use this database to seize control of voter list maintenance from the states, pressure states into purging voters based on unreliable SAVE system matches, and to baselessly undermine trust in the integrity of our elections.

Protect Democracy is fighting back by safeguarding Americans’ privacy and defending the electoral process from unlawful federal interference. 

Co-counsel

• Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
• American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia (ACLU-D.C.)
• Democracy and the Rule of Law Clinic at Harvard Law School

Background

Background

Over the past year, the DOJ has demanded full unredacted voter rolls from at least 49 states and Washington, D.C. These records vary by states but include sensitive personal data such as home addresses, partial social security numbers, drivers’ license numbers, and voting participation history. The agency intends to compare state voter list data with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) notoriously inaccurate Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system in an effort to identify suspected noncitizens on state voter rolls. But the SAVE system has repeatedly and mistakenly flagged lawful U.S. citizens as ineligible to vote. 

Nevertheless, the DOJ is claiming unprecedented authority to demand that states remove any flagged voters within 45 days of informing states. DOJ also intends to share these state voter rolls with unnamed third party contractors for reasons that remain unclear. No law gives the DOJ the authority to conduct this kind of list maintenance activity, which Congress has specifically and exclusively assigned to states. 

At least 18 states (including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming) have complied with the DOJ’s demands for their unredacted state voter rolls.

The DOJ has sued every state that has not given in to its demands to force the states to hand over their voter data. However, judges (in fact, every judge to have ruled on this issue) in eight states — Arizona, Maine, Wisconsin, Michigan, Oregon, California, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island — have dismissed the DOJ’s lawsuits, ruling that the agency’s demands for this confidential data are unlawful.

Why It Matters

The law is clear that the DOJ does not have the authority to stockpile and share voters’ sensitive personal data or purge them from state voter lists. The DOJ’s demands not only run counter to states’ authority to administer elections and maintain their voter rolls, they also risk voters’ right to privacy and could subject millions of records to cyber threats. 

With the 2026 midterms rapidly approaching, the DOJ’s actions are part of a brazen attempt by the Trump administration to deceive the public with false claims about voter fraud, disrupt how states run their elections, and deny the results they don’t like. By stripping states of authority over their own voter rolls, the DOJ is laying the groundwork to challenge future election results and building a framework for federal interference that could outlast this administration.

Anthony Nel, a plaintiff from Texas who was removed from voter rolls 30 days after the SAVE system flagged him as a potential noncitizen, explains why this fight belongs to every American:

“I’ve been a U.S. citizen for over a decade and a voter for nearly as long. I found out my voter registration was canceled because the government is using a system it knows doesn’t work correctly for people like me. The DOJ should not be building a national database out of our most sensitive, personal information when it can’t even get this right.”

Plaintiffs

Plaintiffs

• Common Cause
• Common Cause Education Fund
• Ruth Nasrullah
• Anthony Nel
• Haley Smith
• Linda Duckworth

Defendants

Defendants

• U.S. Department of Justice
• Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche

Case documents

Case documents

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