DOJ Sues First Two States, Oregon and Maine, Over Refusal to Provide Voter Rolls

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed lawsuits against Oregon and Maine, accusing the states of violating federal law by refusing to provide comprehensive voter registration lists and information regarding voter list maintenance. Filed on September 16, 2025, these legal actions mark the first instances of the DOJ suing states in its broader effort to obtain detailed voter data. The department asserts that access to these records is crucial for ensuring the accuracy and integrity of voter rolls nationwide.

The lawsuits allege that Oregon and Maine, through their Secretaries of State, have violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and the Civil Rights Act of 1960. The DOJ is seeking unredacted electronic copies of statewide voter registration lists, which include sensitive personal information such as partial Social Security numbers, to determine if states are complying with federal requirements for maintaining accurate registration. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division stated, "States simply cannot pick and choose which federal laws they will comply with."

Both Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, both Democrats, have vehemently opposed the DOJ's demands, citing privacy concerns and alleging political motivation. Read declared, "If the President wants to use the DOJ to go after his political opponents and undermine our elections, I look forward to seeing them in court." Bellows echoed these sentiments, calling the DOJ's actions "deeply concerning from a constitutional perspective, a privacy perspective and a political perspective, given that they're only targeting Democratic secretaries of state."

The legal challenges against Oregon and Maine are part of an escalated campaign by the DOJ, which has reportedly sent requests for voter registration data to at least 24 states, with 22 of those requests seeking complete voter lists. State officials have expressed concerns that the requested voter data, which the DOJ has reportedly shared with the Department of Homeland Security, could be used for citizenship verification or other purposes beyond voter roll maintenance. Washington state is currently reviewing a similar request from the federal government.

This federal push for voter data follows a March 2025 Executive Order by President Trump aimed at enhancing election integrity and verifying voter eligibility. However, state officials, including Bellows, have highlighted the federal government's "terrible track record keeping private data safe" and questioned the necessity of such extensive data collection, especially given the rarity of noncitizen voting. Many secretaries of state, bipartisanly, rejected similar requests from the Trump administration in 2017.