Civil Rights Groups File Motion to Protect Sensitive Kentucky Voter Data from Department of Justice

The Trump administration's Department of Justice has taken Kentucky to court in an attempt to obtain sensitive, non-public information from the state's voter registration database — including Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, dates of birth, and home addresses. This lawsuit is one of nearly three dozen similar actions filed against states across the country, and reporting suggests the underlying goal is to construct an unauthorized federal voter database and use error-prone data-matching tools to target registered voters — including naturalized citizens — for potential removal from the rolls.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the State of New Jersey, seeking private, confidential voter data. DOJ’s efforts appear to be part of an effort to build a national voter database without congressional authorization and to improperly question the validity of state voter rolls.

NEWARK – The League of Women Voters of New Jersey, the Latino Action Network, and an individual New Jersey voter, represented by the ACLU of New Jersey and the ACLU Voting Rights Project, today filed a motion to intervene in U.S. v. Caldwell to prevent the Department of Justice (DOJ) from obtaining New Jersey voters’ personal data. “The DOJ’s demand for New Jersey’s unredacted voter rolls violates the law and would put voters’ private and sensitive information in the hands of officials who have been clear about their plans to abuse it,” said Jeanne LoCicero, legal director for the ACLU of New Jersey. “This is a dangerous attempt by the Trump administration to disenfranchise voters, especially within vulnerable communities.” In July, the DOJ sent its first demand for New Jersey voters registration list, including voters’ full names, dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers – highly sensitive data that is protected under state and federal law. After the New Jersey Attorney General denied this request several times, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against the state last week. “The federal government has been brazen and reckless in its ongoing efforts to amass sensitive voter information and weaponize it for baseless attacks on voters in the name of discredited election conspiracy theories,” said Javier Robles, president of Latino Action Network. “Naturalized citizens face particular risks. LAN is fighting to protect the privacy and voting rights of our members and all New Jersey voters.” “Protecting voter privacy is essential to preventing disenfranchisement and preserving public confidence in our elections,” said Jesse Burns, executive director of the League of Women Voters of New Jersey. “When voters fear that their private information is at risk, participation suffers and trust in the democratic process is weakened. That trust is not optional – it is the foundation of a healthy democracy. The League of Women Voters of New Jersey is proud to stand up against this attack against our voters.” “Voters should never fear that taking part in our democracy will put their personal information at risk,” said Caren Short, director of legal and research for the League of Women Voters. “The Department of Justice’s crazed demands for states’ unredacted voter lists are an alarming overreach that jeopardizes the privacy of millions. The League is proud to step in to ensure that every voter can cast a ballot freely and without intimidation from the federal government that should be protecting them.” “The administration is trying to illegally hoover up voters’ private data to create a national voter database that Congress never authorized," said Ari Savitzky, senior staff attorney in the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. "They want to be able to harass, intimidate, or improperly challenge people’s votes, chilling civic participation. We won't stand for it. The right to vote is sacred and we will defend it against illegal federal intervention in our elections.” In the brief, the proposed intervener-defendants argue that the DOJ’s request threatens voter privacy and could enable voter disenfranchisement. They seek to advance the interests of civic engagement groups, whose work is compromised when New Jerseyans have reason to distrust the registration process, and individual voters, including naturalized citizens, who risk being targeted by the federal government and whose private data is impacted by this litigation. The motion cites reports indicating that the DOJ intends to create an unauthorized and unlawful national voter database – that may be shared with other federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security – and to use this illicit tool, in conjunction with unreliable DOGE-inspired data-matching and aggregation techniques, to illegally target and challenge voters. This effort creates heightened risks for certain groups of voters, including naturalized citizens and voters with prior felony convictions, whose current eligibility might not be reflected in databases that have out-of-date information.