Cybersecurity Policy Report, DoJ Suffers 22nd Court Loss in Quest for Unredacted Voter Data, (Aug 7, 2026)
Organizations Mentioned:Office of Legal Counsel
A Department of Justice demand for an unredacted voter list containing personal information of the District of Columbia’s voters was dismissed yesterday by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The DoJ filed the suit after the D.C. Board of Elections provided voter registration data with Social Security and driver’s license numbers and information redacted. The board said it would violate federal and D.C. privacy laws to provide unredacted voter data, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss noted in his decision (United States of America v. Monica H. Evans, et al., No. 1:25-cv-04403 (D.C. Cir. Dec. 18, 2025)).
DoJ’s Civil Rights Division has been requesting unredacted voter registration data from states and suing election officials who resist. DoJ claims the Civil Rights Act of 1960 and other election laws empower it to obtain the voter registration data, but 21 federal courts have previously rejected that argument.
“During the last year, the Department of Justice (‘Department’) has embarked on an unprecedented effort to collect sensitive information about voters. Since May 2025, the Department has requested the voter registration list of at least 48 states and Washington, D.C.,” Judge Moss said.
“More specifically, the Department has requested an unredacted version of each state’s voter registration list complete with partial social security numbers and driver’s license numbers,” he said. “Like many states presented with the Department’s request, the District of Columbia’s Board of Elections (‘Board’) shared its voter registration list with the Department but omitted partial social security numbers and driver’s license numbers.”
“So far, the Attorney General has filed at least 30 suits to compel the production of a state’s voter registration list,” the judge added. “At this time, twenty district courts and the Sixth Circuit have denied the government’s motion to compel on various grounds, leaving the Court with no shortage of guidance on these issues.”
Despite DoJ’s 0-22 record in these voter data cases, the department’s Office of Legal Counsel insisted in May that federal and state privacy laws didn’t outweigh the department’s authority to obtain states’ unredacted voter data (CPR, May 14).
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