New lawsuit aims to block Trump DOJ from building national voter database via state voter roll grab

Pro-voting groups sued the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Tuesday to block its bid to build a national voter database using private voter data from every state. 

The lawsuit calls the effort “a key component of the Trump Administration’s attempts to take over elections from states and subvert the 2026 midterms.” It warns that DOJ “is using this highly sensitive data to build — without statutory authorization — a sprawling new voter surveillance and purging apparatus that endangers millions of Americans’ fundamental voting and privacy rights.”

The lawsuit was filed by Common Cause, along with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the American Civil Liberties Union, Protect Democracy, and the Democracy and Rule of Law Clinic at Harvard Law School.

Since last May, Trump’s DOJ has been on a hunt for full access to the unredacted voter rolls of nearly every state, which includes individual voters’ private data like address, birthday, and social security number. Most states refused to hand over the data, and the department has sued 29 states and Washington, D.C. to obtain it. Thus far, Trump’s DOJ is 0 for 5 in its voter roll lawsuits. 

The pro-voting groups alleged in their lawsuit that “no federal statute authorizes DOJ’s sprawling new voter surveillance, data consolidation, and purging operation,” and that the department’s actions usurp states’ constitutional authority to oversee elections and voter list maintenance.

“DOJ has also run roughshod over the Privacy Act, the Paperwork Reduction Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act, threatening millions of Americans’ fundamental rights in the process,” the lawsuit claims.

The groups also fear that DOJ’s efforts could end up purging eligible voters because of its plans to run the data it gets from states through the Trump administration’s “flawed” voter citizenship verification database.

“The Department of Justice is entrusted with protecting the fundamental right to vote — not exploiting its position to get its hands on sensitive voter data without justification,” Ming Cheung, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a statement. “We are filing this lawsuit because these actions cross a dangerous line, threatening both the privacy of millions of Americans and public trust in our elections.”