The League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the League of United Latin American Citizens filed suit Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C., challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s collection and analysis of voter information.
The complaint alleges DHS obtained voter files from at least 47 states and processed them in violation of federal law. It also challenges an agency policy described in the complaint as combining voter information with commercial datasets. The organizations argue that the collection disregards federal safeguards and Americans’ privacy rights. Those are allegations in the lawsuit; the claims have not been resolved by the court.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the collection unlawful, block DHS from using the challenged policy and order the department to delete voter information it has obtained and stop using it. DHS did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The case is part of a broader dispute over the federal government’s role in checking voter eligibility and managing elections. The administration has pursued efforts to address voting by noncitizens, while election administration and voter eligibility have traditionally been handled primarily by states under the Constitution and federal law. The source reports that documented cases of noncitizens casting ballots have been rare, citing studies and prosecutions, while President Donald Trump has repeatedly described the issue as a serious election-integrity concern.
The lawsuit says DHS obtained records despite earlier refusals by officials in 30 states to provide voter information in response to federal demands. It also follows prior court decisions rejecting administration efforts to require states to turn over voter data, according to the source.
The filing came less than three weeks before Election Day, as the administration continued urging states to remove noncitizens from voter rolls. A separate Justice Department lawsuit filed Thursday targets California election officials. The department alleges the state did not act quickly enough to review names federal officials identified as likely noncitizens and asked a judge to prevent the counting of mail-in ballots from those individuals unless their eligibility is confirmed.
California’s secretary of state’s office said it had been given 48 hours to examine about 20,000 names and that the federal government had not supplied the evidence or methodology behind its claims. The Justice Department’s complaint, in contrast, says U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services carried out a multiagency review and identified about 20,000 people on California’s voter rolls as likely noncitizens with high confidence. These competing descriptions are claims by the respective parties, not findings reported as established by a court.
The DHS data lawsuit and the California case are separate legal actions. The first challenges the federal government’s collection and handling of voter data; the second seeks action concerning names flagged in California. The supplied report does not state that a court has ruled on either Thursday filing.
