DOJ Sues 22 States To Force Voter Roll Checks
The Department of Justice has launched a sweeping legal campaign against 22 states for failing to comply with federal voter roll verification laws, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon announced Monday.
In total, 23 lawsuits have been filed against the noncompliant states — including California, which faces two separate cases — for allegedly violating provisions of federal law that require accurate and up-to-date voter registration lists.
“States simply cannot pick and choose which federal laws they will comply with, including our voting laws, which ensure that all American citizens have equal access to the ballot in federal elections,” Dhillon said. “American citizens have a right to feel confident in the integrity of our electoral process, and the refusal of certain states to protect their citizens against vote dilution will result in legal consequences.”
The legal action builds on a pair of lawsuits filed in mid-September against Maine and Oregon, targeting both states and their secretaries of state for failing to provide requested records related to voter list maintenance. The DOJ says the states not only failed to share their procedures but also refused to provide electronic copies of statewide voter registration databases, which are required under the Help America Vote Act and other federal statutes.
Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows responded to the lawsuit by telling the federal government to “go jump in the Gulf of Maine.”
Last week, the DOJ also moved against six additional states — California, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, and Pennsylvania — for what Dhillon described as outright defiance of federal law.
Speaking on The Charlie Kirk Show, Dhillon outlined how her division had spent months requesting access to state voter rolls to ensure compliance with federal cleanup requirements.
“A few months ago I started this process of requesting the voter rolls from all the states and territories in the United States and asked them to share them with us so that we can help these states compare voter rolls against our government data and clean their voter rolls,” Dhillon said. “There’s a lot of hemming and hawing, including from red states, a lot of back-and-forth, and then some outright refusal to cooperate from many states.”
Dhillon said the DOJ is now actively litigating against 22 states while receiving voluntary compliance from 13 others, including Texas. Several secretaries of state submitted their data to the DOJ even on Christmas Eve, she added, allowing the federal government to begin cross-referencing voter rolls with other federal databases to identify ineligible voters.
The lawsuits mark a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s broader push to overhaul election security and ensure clean voter rolls ahead of the 2026 midterms. White House officials have argued that bloated, inaccurate voter rolls undermine public trust and open the door to fraud.
The administration is expected to increase pressure on noncompliant states in the coming weeks, with additional litigation possible if others refuse to voluntarily comply.