Illinois Ruling Extends DOJ’s 0-19 Voter-Roll Loss Record

The Justice Department, under the Trump administration, has pursued a nationwide campaign to obtain unredacted voter-registration databases from states that declined to provide them. The department argues the records are needed to verify compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and to identify potentially ineligible registrations, including non-citizens. States have resisted, citing privacy concerns over driver’s-license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. Prior to the Illinois case, federal courts in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Wisconsin, Maine, Arizona, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Oregon, California, Michigan and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals had dismissed similar lawsuits, leaving the administration with a 0-19 record of district-court defeats.

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U.S. District Judge Colleen Lawless dismissed the Illinois suit with prejudice, concluding the Justice Department lacks statutory authority to compel the Illinois State Board of Elections to turn over its complete voter list. The judge held that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 does not grant the attorney general a “general auditing power” over state election officials and that the NVRA only requires states to make certain maintenance records available for public inspection, not to disclose full, unredacted databases. Lawless also found the department’s demand letter failed to provide a factual basis for requesting sensitive personal data.

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The loss comes as the administration seeks greater federal oversight of election administration ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections. Without access to statewide voter databases, the Justice Department’s ability to conduct nationwide comparisons between state voter rolls and federal records may be limited, potentially affecting broader election-enforcement initiatives.

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• “The Board possesses the list by its own creation,” — Colleen Lawless, district judge

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• “Congress did not confer a general auditing power to the DOJ over state election officials,” — Colleen Lawless, district judge

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