Trump DOJ Sues Colorado and Hawaii in Latest Attempt to Seize Voter Data

by Yunior Rivas, Democracy Docket, December 11, 2025

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Colorado and Hawaii Thursday in the latest lawsuits by the administration seeking to force states to hand over their unredacted voter rolls. 

DOJ has now sued 16 states over access to their voter data. And the department has warned that more lawsuits could come this week — amping up a national campaign that state election leaders say threatens voter privacy and the constitutional authority of states to run elections.

Colorado and Hawaii join a growing list of states, Democratic- and Republican-led alike, resisting the push.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) refused earlier DOJ demands this year, telling the department to “take a hike” and providing only the public voter information federal law requires.

“We will not hand over Coloradans’ sensitive voting information to Donald Trump,” Griswold said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed. “He does not have a legal right to the information. I will continue to protect our elections and democracy, and look forward to winning this case.”

Griswold further rejected an offer to sign a federal data-sharing agreement that she said would violate state law. When the DOJ sent a follow-up request to their initial demand — attaching a proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) it claimed would “cure” any privacy concerns — Griswold responded within two days.

“We received your request. We will not be producing unredacted voter files or signing the MOU,” she wrote.

The complaint against Hawaii repeats the same extraordinary claims the DOJ asserts in every other case. Hawaii was also sued by the Republican National Committee earlier this year in an attempt to scrutinize the state’s voter list maintenance practices.

The lawsuits against Colorado and Hawaii are similar to the fourteen others filed in recent months.

In each case, the DOJ claims that a little-known provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 gives the Attorney General “sweeping” authority to seize election records for “inspection, reproduction, and copying” — language the department repeats word for word in the new filings.

The department’s lawsuit now asks a federal court to force Colorado and Hawaii to turn over the entire statewide voter file within five days of a court order, repeating a tactic used in every lawsuit so far — creating urgency, while placing states and their voters on defense.

For Colorado and Hawaii, as many other states, the stakes are clear. Handing over unredacted voter data would expose millions of people to potential misuse — from political targeting to identity theft — and would undermine the decades-long system of decentralized election administration that has long been considered a strength of American democracy.

Federal courts have yet to interpret the Civil Rights Act of 1960, initially intended to prevent minority voter suppression, as a vehicle for constructing a sort of national voter database and Congress has never authorized one.

Election officials sued by the DOJ have been clear that Trump’s DOJ is demanding personal information it has no lawful right to collect. In every state sued so far, election officials have said they will not violate state privacy laws or jeopardize their election security because of baseless federal government demands.

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CS: Justice Department sues Fulton County over election records | Georgia | thecentersquare.com

DD: Court Cases - Hawaii DOJ Voter Data Access Challenge - Democracy Docket