The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued five additional states on Thursday, demanding access to their voter rolls.
As previously reported, the initial round of lawsuits was filed last September against California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania for failing to provide statewide voter registration lists upon request.
“Clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement at the time. “Every state has a responsibility to ensure that voter registration records are accurate, accessible, and secure — states that don’t fulfill that obligation will see this Department of Justice in court.”
The latest suit targets Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, and New Jersey.
This @TheJusticeDept is the most active in American history in enforcing the Attorney General’s right to review voter data & help states do their legal duty to clean up the voter rolls.@CivilRights is proud to contribute to the American promise of free & fair elections! pic.twitter.com/gJcMB7jDNO
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) February 26, 2026
“The Justice Department will continue to fulfill its oversight role dutifully, neutrally, and transparently wherever Americans vote in federal elections,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement Thursday.
“Many state election officials, however, are choosing to fight us in court rather than show their work. We will not be deterred, regardless of party affiliation, from carrying out critical election integrity legal duties,” she added.
While it’s true that state election officials usually release redacted versions of their voter rolls to both the government and the public, the DOJ has demanded access to the full, unredacted rolls. These contain private info such as driver’s license numbers that some officials, including some Republicans, don’t want released.
“Neither state nor federal law entitles the Department of Justice to collect private information on law-abiding American citizens,” Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican, told Politico.
“Utahans can be assured that my office will always follow the Constitution and the law, protect voters’ rights, and administer free and fair elections,” she added.
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, another Republican, also bashed the lawsuit.
“Kentucky law protects voters’ personal information, and I will not voluntarily commit a data breach by providing Kentuckians’ personal data to the federal bureaucracy unless a court order tells me to,” he told Politico.
However, critics, including Dhillon, have alleged that the real reason for this obstruction and intransigence is a desire to protect illegal aliens:
In case you are wondering why many states are fighting SO hard to refuse compliance with our @CivilRights voter roll data requests, for info @AGPamBondi is entitled to as a matter of law under several federal statutes. One by one, we are suing to enforce our federal voting laws! https://t.co/qW8nGX9kNX
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) November 28, 2025
“Pennsylvania officials publicly admitted that, for decades, the Department of Motor Vehicles had allowed non-U.S. citizens to register to vote through the state’s ‘motor voter’ system,” the Delaware Valley Journal reported in October.
“According to the state’s own analysis, ‘approximately 100,000 registered voters may potentially be non-citizens or may have been non-citizens at some point in time,” the report continued.
This finding prompted the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) to sue, demanding its own access to the state’s voter rolls, only for the Third Circuit to rule against it.
“The public has a right to know how election officials handle errors that place ineligible names on the voter rolls,” PILF President J. Christian Adams said at the time. “Transparency in voter list maintenance is not optional.”
PILF subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court.
“If a voting rights organization like the Foundation does not have standing here, then virtually no one does, and the transparency Congress intended does not exist,” the petition to the high court read. “As a result of this decision, other courts are now limiting access to public documents across the country.”
When asked what difference it makes if illegal aliens vote, PILF attorney Linda Kerns stressed that “every unlawful vote dilutes the voice of lawful voters.”
“Federal law states both that only citizens can vote in federal elections, and that states are required to keep accurate rolls to prevent ineligible registrations,” she continued. “Transparency about how these errors occur helps protect both the integrity of elections and the rights of legitimate voters. Pennsylvanians, and all Americans, deserve better.”
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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