DOJ aims to speed up voter roll case as deadline for removing voters looms

As the Department of Justice (DOJ) belatedly attempts to speed up its drive for state voter registration rolls, lawyers for Michigan are asking the court to pump the brakes. 

The dispute highlights how the DOJ appears to have realized that it needs to move quickly because federal law bars states from purging voters too close to an election.

Last week, the DOJ filed an emergency appeal of a district court decision denying the agency’s demands for unfettered access to Michigan’s registration records, including voters’ private data like social security numbers and birth dates. It was the DOJ’s first appeal out of the three cases it has lost seeking state voter rolls; another 27 lawsuits remain pending. 

Michigan responded Friday to the expedition request to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, saying the government’s speed-up requests were too little, too late. 

“As a result of [DOJ’s] failure to seek any expedited or emergency relief in the lower court, that ship has already all but sailed,” Michigan’s lawyers wrote.

In its appeal, the DOJ requested 21 days to file its brief, then another 7 for the state to respond, and offered to skip oral arguments in the hopes of getting a decision sometime in April. The agency claimed such speed was needed to ensure Michigan’s voter rolls did not include any noncitizens ahead of this year’s midterm elections. 

In the DOJ’s lower court filings — both in Michigan and the other 29 jurisdictions — the department’s lawyers focused their claims on the legal right to access the voter files, without asserting they were needed to prevent noncitizens from voting. 

Courts are allowed to order quicker-than-usual hearings when there is “good cause.” Michigan argued that the DOJ’s sudden realization it was running out of time to effectuate its newly-revealed goals weren’t good enough. 

The DOJ failed to oppose two extension requests filed by the state in the lower court litigation, Michigan noted. After neglecting to seek expedited rulings at the district court, the DOJ now appears to have realized that time is of the essence. The National Voter Registration Act imposes a 90-day blackout on voter maintenance activities before a primary or general election — meaning that as of May 6, Michigan officials wouldn’t be allowed to purge suspected ineligible voters from their rolls if they even wanted to. Given that the DOJ’s ostensible purpose for these demands is to ensure “clean” registration records, the federal government is now rapidly approaching deadlines in the 30 lawsuits. 

“Appellant does not explain why it was content to wait over four months for the lower court to decide this case, but now this Court must somehow render a final decision on the appeal in less than 35 days,” Michigan wrote. 

And while courts often expedite election lawsuits to ensure there’s a decision on whether a candidate is eligible or how ballots are counted before polls open, Michigan noted that this lawsuit doesn’t actually impact voters. 

“Simply put, whether Appellant prevails in this appeal or not, the outcome of this case will have little or no effect on how an election is administered or conducted,” the state argued. 

The DOJ’s pursuit of voter registration rolls is part of President Donald Trump’s wider anti-voting efforts and similarly rooted in the blatant falsehood that noncitizens not only vote in large numbers (they do not) but did so in 2020 to steal the election from Trump (they did not). 

It is illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. The few that do are often caught and then face prison time and then deportation. A comprehensive 2025 audit in Michigan found just 16 suspected — not confirmed — potential noncitizens out of the 7.2 million active registered voters in 2024.