The Trump administration is being sued regarding its efforts to collect and analyze sensitive voter data from across the United States. The complaint, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., on October 12, 2026, alleges that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has obtained voter files from at least 47 states and mishandled the data in violation of federal law. The lawsuit claims that DHS's investigation into voter data, which includes a policy to combine it with commercial datasets, disregards federal safeguards and the privacy rights of millions of Americans.
The case is brought by the League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the League of United Latin American Citizens, marking another legal challenge to President Donald Trump's initiatives aimed at addressing noncitizen voting. The president has consistently argued that noncitizen voting threatens election integrity, although studies and prosecutions indicate that documented cases of noncitizens voting are rare.
The administration has sought to increase federal involvement in voter eligibility and election administration, areas that are primarily managed by states according to the Constitution and federal law. Federal courts have previously rejected the administration's attempts to compel states to provide voter information.
The new lawsuit claims that the administration has processed voter records from at least 47 states, despite officials in 30 states having previously declined federal requests for voter information. The complaint requests that the court declare the administration's collection of voter data illegal, halt DHS's policy, and mandate the agency to delete and cease using the voter information it has already collected.
This lawsuit comes less than three weeks before Election Day, as the administration continues to pressure states, alleging insufficient action to remove noncitizens from voter rolls. Additionally, the administration filed a lawsuit against California election officials, arguing they did not act swiftly enough to review names identified by the federal government as 'likely' noncitizens. The Justice Department is seeking a court order to prevent the state from counting mail-in ballots from these individuals unless their eligibility is confirmed. The California Secretary of State's office stated it was given only 48 hours to review approximately 20,000 names and noted that the federal government had not provided supporting evidence or methodology for its claims. The Justice Department, however, asserts that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services conducted a comprehensive review and determined with 'high confidence' that about 20,000 individuals on California's voter rolls were likely noncitizens.
DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.