DOJ Sues Eight States Over Dirty Voter Rolls as Harmeet Dhillon Cracks Down [WATCH]

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon announced this week that the Department of Justice has filed lawsuits against multiple states for failing to comply with federal requests to review their voter rolls, part of an effort to ensure that only eligible U.S. citizens are registered to vote.

“We’ve been asking states to produce the data of their voter rolls, to be able to make sure that they only have citizens on the rolls and that they don’t have duplicates and have people voting in multiple jurisdictions,” Dhillon told Just The News.

“So we’ve had to file eight lawsuits throughout the United States to enforce our data requests, which is something that they have to comply with under the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act of 1960.”

The lawsuits were filed against California, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New York, Oregon, and Maine.

According to Dhillon, these states have not complied with requirements under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), both of which require states to maintain accurate and up-to-date voter registration lists.

The Department of Justice is seeking access to full voter registration data, including names, dates of birth, addresses, state driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers, to determine whether voter rolls include duplicate registrations or noncitizens.

Dhillon said the goal is to ensure election integrity by confirming that all individuals on state voter rolls are legally eligible to vote.

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President Donald Trump has repeatedly emphasized the need for accurate voter rolls and stronger election oversight since widespread concerns over the 2020 election.

Dhillon said her division is now prioritizing voter roll enforcement as a key step in restoring public confidence in election systems.

“This is an important task and tool that has really been neglected,” Dhillon said.

“In fact, when we started to bring these cases, some of the legacy lawyers in the Civil Rights Division told us that they were unfamiliar with how to do these cases. They’ve never been done in the Civil Rights Division before. So we were proud to bring back these statutes and enforce them.”

The move marks the first time in decades that the Civil Rights Division has taken this kind of direct enforcement action under the statutes.

Dhillon said her team is working to ensure compliance across all 50 states ahead of major elections next year.

In addition to the lawsuits, Dhillon said the Justice Department will also be deploying federal attorneys to monitor upcoming elections in several jurisdictions at the request of candidates.

Federal poll watchers will be present in areas of California, where a redistricting measure is on the ballot, and in Passaic County, New Jersey, where voters will choose assembly members and a governor in a statewide election on November 4.

Dhillon said the Department’s decision to send monitors has faced pushback from some Democratic state officials.

“This has met with some resistance by some state officials,” she said.

“[California] Governor Newsom has gone nutso on criticizing this, but I don’t recall ever hearing him object, or prior Democrat governors objecting when the Democrat Department of Justice sent election monitors to these jurisdictions.”

“And so turnabout is fair play,” she added.

“We’re just responding to requests from folks. I don’t know why anybody should be concerned about federal monitors when this is something that’s been done in many elections in the past.”

“One of the things that we’ve been doing in this DOJ is enforcing our federal civil rights laws related to voting.”

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights @AAGDhillon highlights new endeavors by the DOJ to promote voter integrity during the upcoming election cycle. pic.twitter.com/KR4XJi0n29

— Just the News (@JustTheNews) October 28, 2025

State officials in several of the targeted jurisdictions have raised objections to the Justice Department’s demands, arguing that federal requests for voter registration information may violate state privacy laws.

Officials in Michigan and Pennsylvania have signaled that they intend to challenge the lawsuits in court.

The Department of Justice maintains that the information sought is within its legal authority under the NVRA and the Civil Rights Act.

The law, passed in 1960, requires that states make voter registration records available for federal review to ensure the integrity of the electoral process.

Dhillon said the effort is part of a broader initiative under President Trump’s administration to strengthen election oversight, enforce voter integrity laws, and ensure equal protection under federal election statutes.

“We’re using every lawful tool available to make sure the system works as intended,” Dhillon said.