DOJ is suing both red and blue states to force them to clean voter rolls
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has launched an unprecedented legal campaign against states across the political spectrum, signaling a major federal push to enforce voter roll maintenance ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
At the center of the effort is Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general overseeing the division, who says the lawsuits are designed to ensure that voter rolls contain only eligible voters—an obligation states have long carried under federal law but rarely faced enforcement for ignoring.
According to Dhillon, this marks the first time the federal government has aggressively sued states specifically to compel compliance with voter list maintenance requirements that apply to federal elections.
A Rarely Enforced Federal Mandate
Federal statutes—including the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), and the Civil Rights Act of 1960—require states to maintain accurate and up-to-date voter rolls. In practice, however, enforcement has historically been inconsistent, and states often maintain a single voter database for both state and federal elections.
Dhillon argues that this longstanding laxity has allowed voter rolls to accumulate outdated registrations, including individuals who have died, moved out of state, or are not legally eligible to vote.
“There had been no prior lawsuits to enforce states’ requirement to keep their voter rolls clean for federal elections,” Dhillon said in a recent interview. “That changes now.”
Lawsuits Filed Against Red and Blue States
The DOJ has now sued 22 states for failing to provide full voter registration data upon request. Recent lawsuits target Georgia, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C., while other states—including Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee—have signaled their intent to comply.
The department says roughly ten states are now either fully compliant or in the process of complying with federal data requests.
Notably, the lawsuits are not confined to Democratic-led states. Georgia, which has Republican leadership, is among those being sued—a move that underscores the DOJ’s claim that enforcement is about compliance, not party affiliation.
Privacy Claims vs. Federal Authority
States resisting the DOJ’s requests have largely cited voter privacy concerns or state-level legal restrictions. Dhillon rejects those arguments outright.
She says the federal government is seeking limited, verification-related data—such as citizenship status indicators and partial Social Security numbers—that already exist in federal databases and are essential for confirming voter eligibility.
“When states say their laws don’t allow this, that argument fails,” Dhillon said. “Federal election law supersedes state law when it comes to federal elections. This is a basic constitutional principle.”
Legal scholars generally agree that Congress has broad authority over federal elections under the Elections Clause of the Constitution, giving the federal government substantial leverage when states refuse to cooperate.
A Shift From the Biden-Era Approach
The current enforcement posture represents a sharp departure from the previous administration. Under President Biden, states that attempted aggressive voter roll maintenance often faced lawsuits from the DOJ or allied advocacy groups, particularly when removals were alleged to disproportionately affect minority voters.
Shortly after President Trump returned to office, the DOJ dropped a Biden-era lawsuit against Virginia, which had removed approximately 1,600 non-citizens from its voter rolls.
Dhillon argues that prior enforcement patterns discouraged states from fulfilling their legal obligations.
“States were punished for doing their jobs,” she said. “They were sued whether they acted or didn’t act. That paralysis ends now.”
Georgia Pushback and Federal Escalation
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has publicly defended his state’s practices, claiming Georgia already operates one of the most rigorous voter list maintenance systems in the country, using federal SAVE database verification, Social Security death records, and interstate data-sharing.
Despite those claims, the DOJ is pressing forward, asking a federal court to compel the release of additional voter registration data within days of a ruling.
The dispute highlights a broader national tension: how far federal oversight should extend into state-run election systems—and whether past political sensitivities allowed systemic weaknesses to persist unaddressed.
What Comes Next
Dhillon has made clear that the administration expects substantial voter roll corrections in the coming months, potentially resulting in hundreds of thousands of outdated or ineligible registrations being removed nationwide.
She has also acknowledged that some cases may ultimately reach the Supreme Court, where the balance between federal election authority and state control could be clarified once and for all.
“For the rest of this administration,” she said, “we’re going to support states in enforcing the law—not punish them for it. And we’re just getting started.”
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