Voting-rights groups challenge DHS voter-data collection

Three voting-rights organizations have sued the Department of Homeland Security, alleging it collected and processed state voter-registration information on a multistate scale. The complaint says DHS obtained some version of voter-registration lists from at least 47 states and combined voter information with data from commercial vendors.

The League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the League of United Latin American Citizens filed the case on October 15, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The complaint challenges DHS’s alleged collection, maintenance and use of state voter files. Its claims are allegations for the court to consider, not findings that the department violated the law.

Complaint cites millions of records i

To describe the scope of the activity it challenges, the complaint cites a heavily redacted June 1, 2026, report by Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI. According to the complaint’s account of that report, a “DOJ Dataset Intake” contained 50.6 million records, while DHS obtained 48.4 million records through independent sources, including work attributed to DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Heather Honey.

The complaint also says the HSI report identified 26,563 records derived from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that were prioritized for downstream vetting. It attributes to the report the dissemination of 1,586 leads to 24 HSI field offices.

Those figures describe records and leads cited by the plaintiffs; they do not establish a count of unique voters. The complaint does not establish that the figures represent separate people, and the underlying report is heavily redacted. The lawsuit alleges the data involved voter-registration information, but it does not establish that any particular voter was investigated or harmed.

The plaintiffs allege that DHS obtained voter-file information from at least 47 states, augmented voter files with commercially purchased data, and used the resulting information. The filing does not allege that the department obtained complete voter files from every state; it describes obtaining “some version” of state lists.

Groups seek deletion and a permanent injunction i

The lawsuit argues that the challenged policy exceeds DHS’s statutory authority and violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Privacy Act and the Paperwork Reduction Act. Those are the plaintiffs’ legal arguments, and the court has not ruled on them.

The organizations ask the court to declare the policy unlawful, vacate it and permanently bar DHS from carrying it out. They also seek orders requiring defendants to delete and disgorge covered voter information and prohibiting its use, including internal use and sharing with the Justice Department.

The requested remedies have not been granted. Filing the complaint did not itself order DHS to stop collecting, maintaining, using or sharing data, or to delete records. The case was docketed as League of Women Voters et al. v. Department of Homeland Security et al., No. 1:26-cv-03602.

The October 15 docket entries list the complaint and procedural notices, not a ruling on the merits. The Associated Press reported that DHS did not immediately respond to its request for comment on the filing that day. The lawsuit concerns information alleged to come from state voter-registration files; its claims about the scope and handling of that information remain to be adjudicated.