Tracking the DOJ's effort to get U.S. voter registration data

Justice DepartmentTracking the DOJ's effort to get U.S. voter registration dataThe Department of Justice has asked state officials to provide voter names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s licenses and Social Security data. Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00While many states have complied with the requests, the department has filed lawsuits against 30 states and Washington, D.C., for refusing.Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 7, 2026, 1:22 PM EDTBy Gary GrumbachThe Justice Department is seeking voter registration list data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia as part of what they consider to be their responsibility to “ensure that states have proper and effective voter registration and voter list maintenance programs.”Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.While many states have complied with the requests, the department has filed lawsuits against 30 states and Washington, D.C., for refusing.The Justice Department has said it must comply with the president’s March 2025 executive order, which requires the attorney general to “ensure compliance” with voter registration laws, and to “take appropriate action with respect to states that fail to comply” with voter laws. The requests were unusual. The Justice Department has asked for information from states on elections before, but not voter registration databases from so many states. States run their own elections and maintain their own voter data. There is no national database of voters, and the federal government does not oversee U.S. elections. But President Donald Trump, who still falsely maintains the 2020 election was stolen and that there is widespread voter fraud though members of his own administration have said there was no evidence to back up those claims, has suggested that Republicans should nationalize elections. That move would violate the U.S. Constitution....