DOJ faces fresh suit over push to collect voter information

Jimmy Jenkins, Bloomberg News on Apr 21, 2026

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is facing a fresh legal challenge in its bid to collect and store voters’ personal information before the midterm elections.

Four registered voters backed by advocacy groups are suing the U.S. Justice Department over the data collection push. Their lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington, alleges the administration is stockpiling information from each state to build a “voter surveillance and purging apparatus” to usurp state authority in overseeing elections and maintaining voter rolls.

The Trump administration has demanded that nearly every state turn over unredacted, statewide voter lists, which can include such sensitive information as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses and political party affiliation.

U.S. officials say they need the data to ensure election integrity, although there is minimal evidence that such illegal voting occurs. The latest case represents a new litigation strategy by advocacy groups in the effort to counter the federal push for voter data. Suits by individual plaintiffs could provide additional grounds for judges to take the cases.

The DOJ push for data has set up legal showdowns with 30 states and Washington, D.C., with the Justice Department suing them for refusing to turn over voter data. Federal judges have repeatedly sided with the states, dismissing lawsuits in five instances so far.

“Never before has a federal agency centralized this volume of Americans’ voting data in a single system of record,” according to the complaint. “And in doing so, DOJ has flouted statutory safeguards designed to ensure transparency and public participation in the federal government’s collection of Americans’ personal information.”

The lawsuit alleges that the DOJ could prevent eligible voters from casting ballots by running the data through “its flawed and inaccurate” Systemic Alien Verification Entitlements database, which is used to verify the status of citizens and noncitizens.

The lawsuit claims the Justice Department has violated federal laws and the Constitution, and seeks an order to halt the collection of data and to delete information already collected.

The plaintiffs — Anthony Nel, Linda Duckworth, Haley Smith and Rush Nasrullah — are all members of Common Cause, a nonprofit organization that has provided legal representation for 16 of the 30 states being sued by the Justice Department for refusing to turn over voter data. Common Cause is also a plaintiff in the suit. Other advocacy groups are providing legal representation, including the ACLU, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and Project Democracy.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs say they are concerned for their personal privacy and believe they are likely to be targeted for a voter purge because they are all within a high risk category for being flagged. Two of the plaintiffs are women who changed their names when they were married, and another is a college student who has moved frequently.

“Each are concerned that additional use or disclosure of their personal information by DOJ will result in being flagged for removal from the voter rolls (Mr. Nel for the second time) or labeled an illegal voter,” the lawsuit states.

Nel, who was born in South Africa and gained U.S. citizenship after his parents became naturalized, had been voting in state and federal elections in Texas since 2016, according to the complaint. After voting in the November 2025 election, the lawsuit states Nel was wrongly flagged by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services SAVE program as a noncitizen, and he was ultimately removed from his county’s voting system.

“Voting has always been a passion of mine, ever since I was able to vote, because of the hardship that my family went through to become citizens,” Nel said. “Having it taken away was aggravating and frustrating, because that’s how we vocalize the changes we want to see.”

Nel was forced to renew his passport and submit a copy before having his voter registration reinstated. He said he now checks the rolls regularly because he fears being removed again. He said he joined the lawsuit as a named plaintiff in the hopes that others will be erroneously purged from voter rolls.

“The government does make mistakes,” Nel said. “Not only can it happen, it has already happened.”

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