Trump’s Voter Data Push Faces New Lawsuit Ahead of Election Day
Andrew Powell · Oct 16, 2026 · 2 min read
The Trump administration is facing a new lawsuit over its effort to collect voter information from states and combine those records with other data.
According to Fox News, the complaint, filed Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C., accuses the Department of Homeland Security of obtaining voter files from at least 47 states while handling the information in ways the plaintiffs say violate federal law.
The League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the League of United Latin American Citizens brought the case. They are asking a judge to stop DHS from collecting and using the information and to require the agency to delete voter records it has already obtained.
The lawsuit takes aim at what the groups describe as a secretive federal review of voter data. The complaint says DHS has a policy of combining voter information with commercial datasets, raising concerns about privacy protections for millions of Americans.
The legal challenge comes as President Donald Trump and his administration continue pushing for stronger federal action against noncitizen voting. Trump has repeatedly argued that noncitizens voting in U.S. elections threatens election integrity, while documented cases of noncitizens casting ballots have been rare.
The administration has also sought a larger federal role in voter eligibility and election administration, areas traditionally handled largely by state and local officials.
According to the lawsuit, officials in 30 states previously refused federal requests for voter information. Despite those refusals, the plaintiffs allege the administration has obtained and processed voter records from at least 47 states.
The groups want the court to declare the data collection unlawful and prohibit DHS from continuing the program. They are also seeking an order requiring the agency to stop using voter information already obtained.
The case arrives less than three weeks before Election Day, as the administration continues pressuring states to review their voter rolls for people it believes may not be eligible to vote.
California has become a separate flashpoint in that effort. The Justice Department sued California election officials Thursday, accusing them of failing to move quickly enough to review approximately 20,000 names the federal government identified as “likely” noncitizens.
The Justice Department is asking a judge to prevent the state from counting mail-in ballots from those individuals unless their eligibility can be confirmed.
California’s secretary of state said officials were given only 48 hours to review the names and were not provided the evidence or methodology behind the federal government’s conclusions.
The Justice Department said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services conducted a “multiagency and multilevel review” and determined with “high confidence” that the approximately 20,000 individuals were likely noncitizens.
The new lawsuit adds another legal challenge to the administration’s expanding efforts to scrutinize voter rolls and increase federal involvement in election-related data.