Lawsuit targets records on secret DOGE voter data agreement

A new lawsuit filed Monday seeks to force the Trump Administration to turn over records about a secretive “voter data agreement” between staff and an outside political group — a revelation that intensified fears about potential misuse of sensitive personal data, including in a voting context. 

The case, brought by Democracy Forward Foundation*, centers on a still-murky March 2025 episode in which Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) affiliates at the Social Security Administration (SSA) communicated with an outside advocacy group seeking to analyze voter rolls in an attempt to overturn election results. 

The agency admitted that one DOGE staffer signed a formal agreement with the group, but has never publicly identified the organization involved.

Democracy watchdogs are asking a court to compel transparency from the SSA.

The lawsuit argues that SSA failed to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) — the federal law that requires agencies to release public records — by ignoring requests for key documents, including the voter data agreement itself, internal communications and records tied to potential legal violations.

“By failing to respond to Plaintiff’s FOIA requests with determinations within the statutorily mandated time period, Defendant has violated its duties under 5 U.S.C. § 552, including but not limited to, its duties to conduct a reasonable search for responsive records, to take reasonable steps to release all nonexempt information, and to not withhold responsive records,” the complaint reads.

SSA systems contain personal information on more than 300 million Americans, including Social Security numbers and financial records.

In a court filing earlier this year, SSA admitted that DOGE staff had been approached by a political advocacy group seeking help analyzing voter rolls in an effort to uncover alleged fraud and challenge election results. The agency said it found no evidence that SSA data had actually been shared — but also revealed that the agreement bypassed internal safeguards and was not approved through normal procedures.

The affiliates were reported for potential Hatch Act violations —  a federal law restricting the partisan political activities of executive branch employees.

But the new lawsuit underscores how many questions remain unanswered.

“SSA’s acknowledgments left numerous open questions about the conduct of DOGE affiliates at SSA, how the agency discovered these improper actions, and what other harm DOGE affiliates may have caused. These revelations generated substantial press coverage and multiple Congressional inquiries,” the complaint adds. “Additionally, evidence recently emerged that DOGE affiliates systematically used Signal and other non-official messaging systems to communicate about government business, particularly with other DOGE employees and officials.”

The mention of encrypted messaging platforms like Signal raises additional concerns. 

Federal employees are generally required to preserve official communications, and using non-government systems can make it difficult or impossible to reconstruct what decisions were made and what data may have been shared.

Democracy Forward is asking the court to order SSA to release a wide range of records, including:

• the signed voter data agreement and related emails
• two Hatch Act referrals tied to DOGE staffers, which could indicate unlawful partisan political activity
• communications between SSA officials and outside groups
• records about the use of unauthorized servers to handle SSA data

The lawsuit also emphasized the potential impact on elections.

In the FOIA requests at issue in its lawsuit, Democracy Forward sought communications between SSA staff — including DOGE members — and a wide array  outside groups with a history of challenging elections. The groups include True the Vote, Election Integrity Network (EIN), Citizen Election Research Center, EagleAI Network and Only Citizens Vote Coalition. 

Also included are prominent election denial figures like EIN’s Cleta Mitchell, as well as Julie Adams and Patrice Johnson.

“The concerns raised by SSA’s incomplete disclosures raise urgent questions about improper conduct at the agency that may affect the integrity of upcoming elections through the unlawful disclosure of protected personal information to outside entities and other unlawful, political conduct by SSA employees,” the lawsuit alleges. 

*Democracy Docket Founder Marc Elias is the chair of the Democracy Forward board.