Voting rights and privacy orgs sue Trump admin over secretive collection of millions of Americans’ voter records

The League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) filed a lawsuit today challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s secretive and unlawful effort to collect and compile sensitive personal information about millions of American voters into a massive nationwide database. The plaintiffs are represented by Democracy Forward and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenges the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) collection, maintenance, and use of voter registration records from at least 47 states as part of a sweeping effort to investigate unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. The plaintiffs allege that DHS has exceeded its legal authority, violated federal privacy protections, and put the personal information and rights of millions of Americans at risk.

According to the complaint, DHS has obtained and processed voter records containing highly sensitive personal information, potentially including Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, voting histories, and political affiliations. The agency has also combined voter records with information purchased from commercial data brokers, creating an even more extensive collection of Americans’ personal information.

The lawsuit alleges that DHS has undertaken this sweeping surveillance effort without legal authority or the transparency required by federal law, and without giving the public an opportunity to understand or challenge how it collects and uses personal information.

Internal government records and other disclosures cited in the complaint reveal the unprecedented scope of the administration’s efforts:

• Voter records from at least 47 states: DHS has obtained voter registration files covering the vast majority of the country’s approximately 174 million registered voters.
• Millions of records processed: Internal DHS documents show that, as of June 2026, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a component agency of DHS, had ingested 50.6 million records obtained through the U.S. Department of Justice and another 48.4 million records from other sources.
• Sensitive information combined with commercial data: DHS has supplemented voter records with information from commercial databases, including Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers.
• Voter information incorporated into immigration enforcement systems: Internal records show that DHS has sought to integrate processed voter data into an enforcement system used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
• Serious concerns about accuracy: The complaint describes how DHS’s methods have generated false positives, potentially identifying U.S. citizens as unlawful voters and exposing them to unwarranted investigations and other consequences.

The complaint also highlights the administration’s repeated reliance on inaccurate claims of widespread noncitizen voting. In one instance, DHS publicly claimed to have identified nearly 16,000 noncitizens registered to vote in Nevada. After further examination, DHS reduced that number to 185, and Nevada officials determined that every one of those individuals was a U.S. citizen.

“The federal government has no business secretly collecting the sensitive personal information of millions of American voters and feeding it into immigration enforcement systems under the guise of election security,” said Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters. “Let’s be clear: Voting is a fundamental right, not a privilege granted by this administration, and our personal information is not theirs to exploit. The League will not stand by while this administration weaponizes voter data, undermines public trust, and threatens our fundamental freedoms.”  

“DHS is sweeping up our most sensitive data by any means necessary to fuel its anti-immigration agenda and chase down nonexistent voter fraud. As part of this agenda, the agency is greatly overstepping its authority, violating federal privacy law, and trampling on our privacy, fundamental rights, and democratic values,” said Alan Butler, Executive Director and President of EPIC. “EPIC is proud to join the League and LULAC to stand up against this blatant abuse of our data and defend the fundamental right to privacy.”

“Linking voter rolls to immigration enforcement is voter intimidation, and LULAC will not stand for it. We have seen these tactics before. For nearly a century, those in power have tried to scare Latinos away from the ballot box with purges, threats, and false claims of fraud, and every time we have fought back and won. This administration claims it is going after undocumented people on the voter rolls, but that lie is being used to purge eligible voters from every community, including women. This scheme will meet the same fate. LULAC will keep fighting in the courts and in our communities on behalf of every Latino and immigrant family, and we will not be intimidated,” said Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC.

“Americans should not have to surrender their privacy simply because they exercise their right to vote,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “It is concerning to see voter registration records become part of a massive government surveillance operation, sweeping up sensitive information about millions of people without any legal authority or the safeguards Congress requires. That the federal government is doing so in pursuit of baseless claims of widespread voter fraud that its own investigations have repeatedly failed to prove. Our democracy depends on people being able to participate in elections without fear that their personal information will be weaponized against them. We are going to court on behalf of our clients to put an end to this unlawful abuse of power.”

“The Trump administration continues to abuse Americans’ personal information in ways that endanger our fundamental rights,” said CREW Chief Counsel Nikhel Sus. “There is no legal justification for this unacceptable overreach, and we will use every legal tool to prevent it.” 

The plaintiffs ask the court to halt the policy, prohibit DHS from using or sharing information collected under it, and require the agency to delete the voter data it unlawfully amassed.

The case is League of Women Voters et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security et al.