Ten Democratic secretaries of state asked the Trump administration on Tuesday for more information about its sweeping effort to search voter rolls across the state, citing concerns that federal agencies had apparently misled them and could feed the data into a program used to verify U.S. citizenship.
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the secretaries of state expressed “grave concern” over reports that the Justice Department shared voter data from states with the Department of Homeland Security.
“Given the unprecedented nature and scope of DOJ’s requests, we need additional information about how this information will be used, shared, and protected,” they wrote.
In response to a request for comment, the Justice Department shared an earlier statement from Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the DOJ’s civil rights division. “Clean electoral rolls and basic electoral safeguards are essential for free, fair and transparent elections,” she stated. “DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has the statutory authority to enforce our federal voting rights laws, and ensuring the voting public’s confidence in the integrity of our elections is a top priority for this administration.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The Republican administration’s request for detailed voter data has become a major point of contention with Democratic states this year as the 2026 election looms on the horizon. mid-term elections. The Justice Department has asked at least 26 states in recent months, including some led by Republicans, for data and sued eight for the information. At the same time, voting rights groups sued the administration, arguing that a recent update to a federal citizenship verification tool could illegally remove voters from the voter rolls.
Some states have sent redacted versions of their voter rolls that are available to the public, or have denied requests for voter data, citing their state laws or the Department of Justice’s failure to comply with federal privacy law obligations. But the Justice Department has repeatedly expressly requested copies that contain personally identifiable information, including voters’ names, dates of birth, addresses and driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers.
Even some GOP-controlled states, such as South Carolina, have balked at the request amid ongoing negotiations with the administration on how to meet the demand to turn over such records.
In their letter, 10 election officials said federal officials “shared misleading and sometimes contradictory information” during two recent meetings held by the National Association of Secretaries of State.
At a meeting in August, a Justice Department official said the agency plans to use voter information to make sure states are maintaining their voter rolls in accordance with two federal voting laws.
But the following month, according to the letter, the Department of Homeland Security said it had obtained voter data and would include it in a federal program used to verify citizenship status. That was despite a Homeland Security official telling the secretaries of state at a meeting in September that the department had not received or requested voter data, the letter said.
The SAVE program, or Systematic Alien Entitlement Verification, is run by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. It’s been around for decades and has been widely used by local and state officials to verify the citizenship status of people applying for public benefits using various federal databases.
DHS and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency revamped the SAVE program earlier this year, according to public reports. They made it free for election officials, allowed agencies to search voters by the thousands instead of one by one, and began allowing queries using names, birthdays and Social Security numbers instead of requiring DHS-issued identification numbers.
The letter from the Democratic secretaries of state asks the administration to answer several questions, including whether the Justice Department has shared or plans to share voter files with the Department of Homeland Security or other federal agencies and, if so, how those other agencies would use the data.
“DHS has told the secretaries of state that they will not use or benefit from voter information. Does DHS continue to stand by that assertion in the face of public reports and statements that appear to contradict those assertions?” the letter asks.
Other questions focused on confidentiality and security measures taken to protect data and how federal agencies comply with privacy laws.
The letter was sent by the secretaries of state of Arizona, California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. They asked the Trump administration to provide answers by December 1.