Amid U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin pledging to aggressively pursue voter fraud cases, voter and civil rights organizations are celebrating a federal court’s dismissal of a Department of Justice lawsuit seeking the private data of New York voters.
“This past Friday, we were excited to hear that the case was dismissed,” said Erica Smitka, executive director of the League of Women Voters of New York State.
The League of Women Voters of New York State was among the organizations who sought to intervene in the DOJ’s lawsuit.
“Unfortunately, we are anticipating that they may appeal the case,” said Smitka. “So, we’re preparing for that as well.”
The voter list contains confidential information on all of New York’s registered voters including partial social security and driver’s license numbers, birthdates and other private information including the “unique identifier for each legally registered voter.”
In June 2025, the DOJ sent a letter to the Board of Elections of the State of New York saying it needed the information to safeguard elections.
New York refused and the DOJ filed a lawsuit in September.
New York Attorney General Letitia James says the Trump administration is overreaching in wanting this information.
“This administration to want this personal information of all New Yorkers the answer is no,” said James. “We’ve responded and we’ve given him information which is anonymous. Which does not include social security numbers, or how many people voted, or their addresses.”
To date, according to the State Democracy Research Initiative, the lawsuit is one of 31 federal lawsuits filed against 30 states including the District of Columbia seeking jurisdictions to turn over this data.
New York Law School professor Jeff Wice weighs in.
“They tried to bring arguments under two federal laws,” said Wice. “The Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act and neither of those federal laws provide for the federal government to come in and obtain this information from the states.”
On Friday, Mullin held a press conference in Washington, D.C. about election security and had this to say about states’ voter rolls.
“We have 46 other states, in just four states we’ve identified 250,000 non-citizens registered to vote in California, and Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada,” said Mullin.
Mullin’s comments follow President Donald Trump’s primetime address Thursday where he doubled down on accusations questioning the legality of U.S. elections and his claim over his 2020 loss in an appeal for more restrictive voting laws ahead of this year’s midterms.
Spectrum News 1 reached out to the Department of Justice for comment and did not immediately hear back.