Voting Rights Groups Sue DHS Over Secret Collection of Voter Data From Dozens of States

The League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) sued DHS on Oct. 15 in federal court in Washington, alleging the department ran a "secretive probe" that obtained detailed voter files from dozens of states and combined them with commercial data, in violation of federal privacy safeguards. The 42-page complaint says at least 30 states refused DHS's requests.

The groups ask the court to declare the data collection unlawful, block it, and order DHS to delete the voter information it has already gathered. The suit is the latest of several challenging the administration's data-matching push against alleged noncitizen voting, a practice research has found to be rare; it was filed the same day the Justice Department sued California over a separate list of about 20,000 voters it calls "likely" noncitizens.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The case was filed less than three weeks before Election Day, and no hearing date has been set.