DOJ Sues Oregon and Maine over voter roll records, Washington reviewing similar request

“States simply cannot pick and choose which federal laws they will comply with, including our voting laws, which ensure that all American citizens have equal access to the ballot in federal elections,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division. “American citizens have a right to feel confident in the integrity of our electoral process, and the refusal of certain states to protect their citizens against vote dilution will result in legal consequences.”

The lawsuit targeting Oregon and Secretary of State Tobias Read alleges violations of three federal laws: the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and the Civil Rights Act of 1960 (CRA).

According to the Justice Department, Oregon refused to produce a current unredacted electronic copy of its statewide voter registration list, withheld information about the state’s voter list maintenance program, and failed to provide registration data for ineligible voters.

Oregon is particularly significant because it was the first state in the nation to adopt universal vote-by-mail elections statewide, beginning in 2000. Every registered voter automatically receives a ballot by mail, with returns made either through the postal system or at official drop boxes.

The lawsuit against Maine and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows makes similar claims, asserting that the state violated the NVRA, HAVA, and CRA by refusing to disclose details on the removal of ineligible voters and by declining to release an unredacted computerized copy of its statewide voter registration list.

Maine is not an all-mail state, but it does allow no-excuse absentee voting and a large share of its voters cast ballots by mail. Traditional in-person polling places remain open on Election Day.

The Justice Department noted that both Oregon and Maine had previously provided identical information to a private organization while rejecting federal requests. DOJ officials argue that this selective compliance undermines transparency and violates federal law.

The lawsuits come as the Justice Department broadens its effort to obtain statewide voter rolls. On Monday, Sept. 8, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs confirmed his office received a letter from the DOJ requesting a full copy of the state’s Voter Registration Database within 14 days. The request, signed by Dhillon, specifies that the data must include each registrant’s full name, date of birth, residential address, and either driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

Similar requests have reportedly gone out to at least 22 states.

Washington has conducted all-mail elections statewide since 2011, making its voter registration list central to election administration. Hobbs said his office is carefully reviewing the DOJ request before releasing any information.

“As Washington’s chief election official, it is my responsibility to ensure the election process is safe, secure, and transparent,” Hobbs said. “This includes protecting Washingtonians’ voter information and privacy. I will work with all stakeholders to ensure we maintain both. To that end, I do not plan on releasing any information until DOJ provides me information on what they plan to do with the data. My office will respond to the DOJ once I’ve had the opportunity to fully assess that information while working with stakeholders, and ensuring our response meets both state and federal legal requirements.”

Election integrity in Washington is already facing heightened scrutiny following a recent analysis by election watchdog Glen Morgan of We the Governed. Speaking in a detailed interview on The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, Morgan revealed that more than 14 percent of registered voters in Washington, roughly one in seven, lack a Social Security number on file, raising urgent questions about the accuracy and legality of the state’s voter rolls.

“This isn’t just a paperwork glitch. It’s hundreds of thousands of voters we can’t verify,” Morgan explained. His review covered 29 of Washington’s 39 counties and nearly one million active registered voters. Among them, an estimated 25,000 voters have neither a Social Security number nor a driver’s license recorded, meaning there is no reliable proof of their eligibility to vote.

Morgan argued that this directly contradicts claims by the Secretary of State’s office that registrations are verified against Social Security Administration data. “The Secretary of State’s claim that they ‘verify’ voter data using SSA records is demonstrably false,” he said. “If they actually did, they would know that over 700,000 voters can’t be verified because their data is missing or incomplete.”

The deficiencies Morgan identified appear to put Washington out of compliance with two major federal directives: President Trump’s March 2025 Executive Order on Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections, which requires states to maintain accurate voter registration lists, verify eligibility through federal data sources, and remove ineligible voters. The order also ties federal funding to compliance.

The second is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, passed by the US House and advancing in the Senate, which mandates that states require documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration and sets stricter standards for verifying eligibility and removing duplicate or ineligible registrations.

Morgan argued that Washington’s voter rolls, as they currently stand, cannot confirm citizenship for a large portion of its voters, leaving the state in violation of both directives.