United States v. Wisconsin Elections Commission

Since 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has demanded that states turn over sensitive voter information, including Social Security and driver’s license numbers. Most states have refused. So far, every federal court to hear the DOJ’s argument — 23 in total, including Wisconsin — has dismissed the case.

DOJ appealed its Wisconsin loss. Now, on behalf of 45 Wisconsin local election officials and eight local governments, Public Rights Project has filed an amicus brief urging an appeals court to affirm the dismissal of the DOJ’s case in Wisconsin. 

State and local governments have authority over election administration, not the federal government. The brief stresses that courts must review these types of requests, especially for election records. It also explains why the DOJ’s attempts to access voter records are both unlawful and burdensome:

• The DOJ attempted to bypass Wisconsin’s public records procedures. Local officials, not the DOJ, determine whether requested records should be released under the law.
• Wisconsin election officials are required to protect voter privacy. Sharing unredacted personal information infringes on voters’ rights.
• Surges in public record requests, including ones from the DOJ, place an unnecessary burden on local election officials and threaten to impede their ability to run an election. 
• Wisconsin has established a comprehensive system to maintain an accurate voter roll and has met its list maintenance requirements under state law. 

The DOJ has increasingly tried to interfere with state and local administration of voter rolls, including attempts to pool voter data from all states into a database and create a federal list of mail ballot recipients. Not only are these attempts unlawful, but they’re also poorly executed. The database created by the federal government is unreliable, incorrectly flags voters as potentially ineligible, and creates significant burdens for local election officials in states that have used it.

For these reasons, we urge the court to affirm the dismissal. 

Read the amicus brief.