CREW sues DOJ for failing to produce records on voter data collection

CREW is suing the Department of Justice (DOJ) for failing to produce records on an expedited basis in response to CREW’s FOIA requests about the agency’s collection of confidential voter information from state voter rolls. 

On March 25, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order requiring states to turn over vast swaths of confidential voter data with the federal government for the stated purpose of determining voter eligibility and combatting noncitizen voting, despite it being extremely rare. The DOJ has sent letters to over 40 states demanding copies of their statewide voter registration files which include personally identifiable information (“PII”) such as residential address, driver’s license numbers and Social Security numbers. The DOJ also sent emails and letters to chief election officials in at least 14 states to request meetings to discuss information sharing agreements. As a result of these efforts, the DOJ is reportedly amassing “the largest set of national voter roll data it has ever collected” and has already sued 14 states for failing to provide their full voter registration files. 

On September 4, 2025, CREW filed a FOIA request to the DOJ’s Criminal and Civil Divisions seeking records on the DOJ’s legal basis for requesting and accessing PII held by election officials, the scope of the DOJ’s intended usage of state voter data and the privacy and data security safeguards in place for protecting that data. On November 4, 2025, CREW sent an additional records request to the DOJ Civil Rights Divisions for all informal and formal data sharing agreements between the DOJ and state or election officials in addition to records relating to the DOJ’s use of the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database for the voter citizenship verification. 

These records will help the public understand how federal officials intend to use millions of Americans’ sensitive data to influence state election administration and whether  Americans’ privacy rights are being respected in the process. Without timely disclosure of these records, the public cannot assess the extent to which the DOJ’s unprecedented requests for sensitive personal data have undermined their voting and privacy rights, which may affect their willingness to share information with state authorities in future elections. The exigency is increased by the fact that individuals may face criminal investigation and prosecution based on the data their states are sharing with the federal government. For these reasons, the court should order the DOJ to expeditiously and fully process CREW’s FOIA requests and disclose all responsive records so that the public can have transparency into the federal government’s intervention into states’ election infrastructure.