The Justice Department filed lawsuits on Thursday against six states — California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania — for refusing to hand over their statewide voter registration lists, escalating the Trump administration’s campaign to enforce federal election integrity laws.
The complaints were filed in several federal courts on Thursday, citing the states’ alleged violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, the Help America Vote Act of 2002, and the Civil Rights Act of 1960. The suits target senior election officials in each state and seek court orders to compel full disclosure of voter data, including names, birth dates, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers.
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“Clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement. “Every state has a responsibility to ensure that voter registration records are accurate, accessible, and secure — states that don’t fulfill that obligation will see this Department of Justice in court.”
Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, emphasized that federal laws require states to maintain up-to-date voter lists and comply with lawful records requests.
“Clean voter rolls protect American citizens from voting fraud and abuse, and restore their confidence that their states’ elections are conducted properly, with integrity, and in compliance with the law,” Dhillon said.
The new lawsuits follow the DOJ’s earlier enforcement action against North Carolina, which settled this month after a federal judge approved an agreement requiring the state to fix over 100,000 incomplete voter registrations. That suit alleged violations of the same federal laws cited in the latest round of litigation.
Some state officials have pushed back on the federal requests. Minnesota’s Democratic secretary of state argued that the DOJ lacked legal authority to demand the data, while New Hampshire has cited state privacy laws that prohibit releasing the voter roll. California officials raised concerns about data misuse and requested more information about safeguards before complying.
The legal campaign aligns with President Donald Trump’s executive order earlier this year that directed the DOJ to investigate states for election law violations and mandated proof-of-citizenship requirements for new voter registrations. While portions of that directive have been blocked in court, the DOJ has continued pressing states to disclose voter data in what it describes as a nationwide compliance review.
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The administration has also sued Oregon and Maine for failing to provide information about their voter list maintenance procedures.
A related federal court order earlier this month temporarily blocked South Carolina from turning over millions of voter records, pending further review.