DOJ's Voter-Roll Data Campaign Falls to 0-for-25: Washington Dismissed With Prejudice
UPDATE (Sept. 22, 2026): The streak is now 0-for-25. U.S. District Judge Kymberly Evanson (W.D. Wash., a Biden appointee) dismissed with prejudice DOJ's lawsuit demanding Washington's unredacted statewide voter registration list — the 25th straight district-court loss in the administration's nationwide campaign to force states to surrender complete voter files (names, dates of birth, addresses, driver's-license or partial SSN numbers).
Evanson rejected DOJ's core theory that Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 (52 U.S.C. § 20701) lets the attorney general demand the statewide list: "The Government's reading of [52 U.S.C. § 20701] is not persuasive as a matter of statutory interpretation, nor is it consistent with the purpose of the CRA." Because state officials themselves create and continuously maintain the database, it never "comes into" their possession within the statute's meaning: "If Congress intended that Title III would cover all documents in a state's possession, as the Government would have it, Congress would have said so." She called DOJ's broader "general inspection regime" theory an attempt to use the Civil Rights Act as "an unlimited tool to consolidate voter data and to expand its own power over elections, rather than to protect the right to vote," and noted DOJ never explained how a 22-month record-retention rule applies to a "living" database.
Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs: "The DOJ has now lost 25 of these cases.1 Baseless demands for state voter rolls are part of a broader pattern of federal overreach in states' elections2.3" Notably, DOJ's own attorney conceded at oral argument last month that Washington's case was factually indistinguishable from the department's other voter-roll suits.
Where the campaign stands now: DOJ has appealed nearly all of its losses and has already lost one completed appeal (the full Sixth Circuit upheld dismissal in Michigan). The Ninth Circuit decisions in the California and Oregon appeals — argued in May — are the next inflection points; Idaho and Hawaii suits are stayed pending those. Only Delaware, Georgia, and Utah remain actively moving toward district-court rulings. Prior count: 0-for-24 as of Sept. 19 (Vermont dismissal + Sixth Circuit rehearing denial).
Why it matters: the unbroken losing streak shows the courts uniformly rejecting DOJ's statutory theory — yet the department keeps pressing, which keeps the fight alive at the appellate level where a friendly panel could rewrite the rules.
-
An instance of The voter-fraud machine grows every time it comes up empty. — Courts uniformly reject the data-demand theory, yet the campaign keeps filing toward friendlier appellate panels. ↩︎
-
An instance of Unilateral federal audits cannot override state control of voter registration databases. — A 0-for-25 losing streak shows courts uniformly protecting state-administered voter registration databases from federal seizure. ↩︎
-
An instance of Federal courts systematically block the executive branch from overriding state control of voter databases. — A 0-for-25 losing streak shows federal judges uniformly refusing to force the surrender of state registration databases. ↩︎