Idaho is latest red state to reject DOJ voter roll grab

Idaho — a deeply Republican state — has become the latest to refuse the Trump Justice Department’s demand for unredacted statewide voter rolls.

In a response letter to the DOJ last week, Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (R) said he will not provide sensitive voter information despite federal pressure to do so. The secretary cited the department’s three recent court losses, privacy concerns and evidence that noncitizen voting is virtually nonexistent.

The letter was obtained and posted by the Idaho Capital Sun.

The refusal places Idaho alongside a growing number of red states pushing back against the department’s campaign to collect unredacted voter registration databases across the country.

McGrane said recent federal court rulings undermined the department’s legal theory for its demands.

“At this point, three federal district courts have dismissed Department lawsuits seeking to compel production of an unredacted statewide voter registration list, concluding that neither HAVA, the NVRA, nor Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 authorize the Department to require disclosure of a state’s full voter registration list on request,” he wrote. “This indicates that the Department lacks a legal basis to demand personal information otherwise protected under Idaho law.”

DOJ has argued that those laws allow it to demand complete voter databases as part of an investigation into how states maintain their voter rolls. But the district court rulings — which have now been appealed — rejected that interpretation.

McGrane also raised concerns about how the federal government handles sensitive personal information, citing a recent court filing involving the disclosure of protected data.

“Personally identifiable information from federal systems has been transmitted outside approved channels, resulting in submission of sensitive personal information, including social security numbers, to unauthorized persons,” he added. “That development reinforces the importance of careful stewardship of sensitive voter information.”

While DOJ has insisted it would safeguard voter data, McGrane said Idaho cannot take that risk without a clear legal obligation to do so.

Furthermore, the letter pushes back against one of the central claims driving the nationwide crusade — that noncitizens may be registering and voting in widespread numbers.

Idaho conducted a statewide citizenship verification effort ahead of the 2024 election using driver’s license records and the federal SAVE immigration database, which has been criticized for inaccuracies.

The review resulted in 11 cases of potential noncitizens registering to vote being referred to federal prosecutors, McGrane wrote. None of those cases involved individuals who actually voted in Idaho’s 2024 primary or general elections.

McGrane said Idaho had already provided the department with the same publicly available voter registration data that anyone can access under state law. That dataset, he argued, should be sufficient for legitimate inquiries into voter list maintenance.

While DOJ’s campaign has drawn fierce opposition from Democratic states, Idaho’s refusal underscores a growing bipartisan backlash — with Republican officials increasingly questioning the legal basis for the demands and raising alarms about state authority over elections.