EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Has the Right to Voter Data—But It's Going About It the Wrong Way
Federal law gives the executive branch authority to access voter registration information, but the current approach is failing.
President Donald Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed lawsuits against 30 states and the District of Columbia for refusing to hand over their voter registration lists. Its mission of ensuring clean voter rolls by identifying dead voters, non-citizens, and duplicate registrations is morally legitimate and legally sound. But its methods are leading to failure.
The DOJ currently stands at 0-for-6 in federal district courts, with its most recent loss coming in Arizona. In that case, the judge made a crucial distinction between what federal law authorizes—that states hand over data provided by voting registrants—and what the DOJ is demanding—states’ complete voter files. Although it’s technically the same information in a different format, judges are unlikely to budge on this point.
The Civil Rights Act of 1960 gives the Attorney General broad authority to inspect and copy information that voters have submitted during the registration process. This naturally includes sensitive personal data such as driver's license and Social Security numbers. Obtaining this sensitive information is crucial because it allows the DOJ to cross-reference rolls against federal databases to identify possible dead registrants, duplicate entries, or non-citizens.
But, as the district judge in the Arizona case noted, the Civil Rights Act contemplates access to underlying voter-submitted information, not a state's proprietary data repackaged for federal convenience. Conflating the two marks a strategic error on the part of the DOJ.
In a statement to Restoration News, Voter Reference Foundation Executive Director Joseph Benson said, “The DOJ needs to address its procedural and privacy compliance deficiencies to have a chance of making any progress here.”
How the DOJ Can Course Correct
The administration's losing streak in court isn't evidence that the underlying goal is illegitimate. Although the Civil Rights Act aimed to prevent states from denying the right to register to those who legally can vote, nothing in it keeps the federal government from using it to prevent states from registering those who legally cannot. The DOJ claims to have so far identified roughly 350,000 dead individuals and 25,000 non-citizens flagged from voluntarily submitted records in 60 million voter records.
But six consecutive losses should prompt a strategic regrouping, not just an appeals strategy with the hope that it may find more favorable judges down the pike.
The DOJ can start by requesting the raw voter registration data that individuals submit to states and then build its own database from that information.
Benson added, “They should also replace the blanket, templated demand letters with individualized, state-specific demands that can articulate factual compliance gaps.”
The Privacy Act Cannot Be an Afterthought
Beyond its data request missteps, the DOJ faces a second legal hurdle it cannot ignore—The Privacy Act of 1974. Once the federal government obtains voter registration data, it becomes subject to this law, which did not exist when the Civil Rights Act was passed.
The Privacy Act imposes strict requirements on how federal agencies collect, store, and use personally identifiable information. It requires that individuals be notified when their data is collected, that the data be used only for its stated purpose, and that it be protected against unauthorized disclosure. Any federal voter data initiative that vacuums up Social Security numbers and driver's license information without a clear, compliant data-handling framework is not just legally vulnerable, but a genuine privacy risk to millions of ordinary citizens.
The DOJ's critics have weaponized privacy concerns as a shield against legitimate oversight. But the administration gives them that shield every time it fails to articulate a concrete plan for keeping sensitive voter data secure.
Ensuring that states maintain clean, updated voter rolls is a worthy and popular goal.
The Civil Rights Act gives the executive branch a meaningful tool to pursue that goal through guaranteed access to the raw information voters provide to states. But the DOJ must be willing to put in the work to compile it rather than presume the ability to commandeer states’ files. Additionally, it must handle what it collects in full compliance with the Privacy Act.
“Before stepping into any more courtrooms, they need to publish a System of Records Notice to comply with the Privacy Act so that states can know definitively how the data is being collected, stored, used, and shared,” Benson said. “This could potentially shift their posture from one that courts are treating as an unlawful fishing expedition into one grounded in both statutory authority and federal data governance requirements.”
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