The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced Tuesday that it has filed lawsuits against six additional states—Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington—for refusing to turn over their statewide voter registration lists as required under federal law.

The action brings the total number of states now facing federal litigation to fourteen, as reported by the Gateway Pundit.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi, who has taken a substantially stronger election-transparency posture than prior administrations, said the continued refusal of states to comply with federal voter-roll laws threatens the integrity of national elections.

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“Accurate voter rolls are the cornerstone of fair and free elections, and too many states have fallen into a pattern of noncompliance with basic voter roll maintenance,” Bondi said.

“The Department of Justice will continue filing proactive election integrity litigation until states comply with basic election safeguards.”

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon, who is overseeing the department’s nationwide enforcement sweep, said states that withhold voter lists are undermining public confidence.

“Our federal elections laws ensure every American citizen may vote freely and fairly,” Dhillon said.

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“States that continue to defy federal voting laws interfere with our mission of ensuring that Americans have accurate voter lists as they go to the polls, that every vote counts equally, and that all voters have confidence in election results. At this Department of Justice, we will not stand for this open defiance of federal civil rights laws.”

Dhillon said many of the explanations states have offered for withholding their lists are not supported by law.

“Mainly, they’re arguing privacy or that the reason the DOJ has given for this information isn’t the real reason. They always have some silly conspiracy theory going, but actually don’t have to give a reason,” she said.

Dhillon added that federal law entitles the department to obtain voter roll data and that states “don’t get to go back and forth with us.”

She specifically addressed claims involving Social Security data.

“One of the dumbest reasons that I hear put up is, ‘Oh, the Social Security number is confidential.’ Well, how can it be confidential from the federal government that issues the Social Security numbers? That’s really silly,” she said.

Dhillon also noted that several states withholding voter lists from federal authorities voluntarily share the same information with nonprofit organizations and outside groups.

“ERIC is one of them. So what’s the privacy concern? If you’re willing to give it to some nonprofit that benefits your political agenda, why aren’t you going to give it to the United States?” she said.

According to Dhillon, many states have begun complying after determining that litigation would be costly and unsuccessful.

She said the goal of the effort is to allow states to compare data, eliminate duplicate registrations, remove ineligible voters, and meet legal maintenance requirements.

“Each of these states is required to keep clean voter rolls. They’re not doing it, for the most part. This is red states and blue states,” she said.

“We’re going to compare data, we’re going to help eliminate duplicates, help them root out fraud, and get people off the voter rolls who shouldn’t be there.”

Ultimately, @CivilRights under @AGPamBondi wants to help all the states do their jobs better and give American citizens the clean voter rolls they are entitled to! pic.twitter.com/hBYxD4DGgl

— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) December 4, 2025

The DOJ lawsuits cite three federal statutes that mandate transparency and access to voter registration files:

• The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) — requires states to maintain accurate and updated voter lists and provide them upon request.
• The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) — mandates modern, secure voter registration systems that may be evaluated by federal authorities.
• The Civil Rights Act of 1960 (CRA) — authorizes the Justice Department to inspect and copy voter registration lists and related election documents.

The fourteen states currently facing DOJ litigation for refusing to provide their full statewide voter files are California, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

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