DOJ Takes Washington to Court Over Refusal to Turn Over Full Voter Rolls
The Department of Justice sued Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs Dec. 2, 2025 to force the state to hand over its full voter registration list, igniting a privacy and federal-state authority clash that matters as election officials nationwide resist broad DOJ data demands.
The lawsuit targets Hobbs for refusing a September federal demand for Washington’s complete electronic database of registered voters, including names, dates of birth, residential addresses, and either driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of Social Security numbers.
Federal attorneys say the request — grounded in the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act — is part of a DOJ review of how Washington maintains its voter rolls, including whether it is complying with federal list-maintenance requirements.
Hobbs has pushed back, telling reporters he had not been formally served and that “state law prohibits me from doing that, and federal law prohibits me from doing that,” according to local coverage.
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“The Department of Justice will continue filing proactive election integrity litigation until states comply with basic election safeguards,” a DOJ statement said in similar cases.
Officials in Washington argue that state privacy statutes and control over election procedures protect voters’ sensitive information and that the DOJ’s filing was procedurally flawed.
This lawsuit is one of several filed against states that declined to hand over unredacted voter files, part of an escalating federal effort to demand voter data from election officials across the country.
Legal experts expect Washington and other states to fight the DOJ’s authority, raising questions over federal election oversight and personal data privacy. A federal court will now decide whether to compel production of the records. Next: court briefing and any injunction motions.
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