Trump DOJ drops case seeking Oklahoma’s voter rolls
The Trump Justice Department abruptly dropped its lawsuit seeking Oklahoma’s unredacted voter rolls — retreating before a judge could even weigh in.
In a brief filing Tuesday, DOJ lawyers moved to voluntarily dismiss the case against Oklahoma election officials, invoking a procedural rule that allows plaintiffs to end a lawsuit unilaterally at an early stage.
The filing offered no explanation for the decision, but the move could reflect a potential agreement with state officials.
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Because Oklahoma had not yet filed a response, the DOJ was able to dismiss the case “without prejudice,” meaning it can refile the same lawsuit later.
In Oklahoma, the DOJ never filed a motion to compel the records it was seeking — meaning the court was never asked to decide whether the state had to turn over its voter data.
Earlier this month, Eric Neff, acting chief of the Voting Section, said in a separate court hearing that at least one state the DOJ sued had reached out to discuss a potential settlement, though he did not identify which one.
The lawsuit against Oklahoma was part of a broader push to force states to turn over unredacted voter databases. The department filed similar lawsuits against 28 other states and Washington, D.C.
The campaign has been marred by a series of legal and technical errors that have already caused significant setbacks.
In Oklahoma, DOJ officials spent months emailing election officials at the wrong address, repeatedly following up on a request the state had never received. In Washington state, a separate DOJ lawsuit recently descended into chaos after federal lawyers failed to properly serve the defendant, ignored a court order and claimed — incorrectly — that a government office was the official’s residence.
The DOJ has since begged the court not to dismiss its case against Washington.
The voluntary dismissal of the Oklahoma case means one fewer venue for the DOJ to test its legal theory. But because the case was dropped without prejudice, the department can bring it back at any time.