Voting Rights Groups, Wisconsin Voters Challenge Trump Administration’s Unwarranted Grab For Private Data

On behalf of Common Cause and three Wisconsin voters, attorneys from Law Forward, the ACLU’s national Voting Rights Project, and the ACLU of Wisconsin filed a motion Thursday to intervene in the Trump administration’s lawsuit against the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) over its refusal to hand over confidential information about registered state voters.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seeks to force WEC to turn over voters’ sensitive personal information, including driver’s licenses and partial Social Security numbers. Law Forward and the ACLU are representing Common Cause and individual voters potentially impacted by the Trump administration’s case.

The DOJ’s request for this data is reportedly in connection with never-before-seen efforts by the Trump administration to construct a national voter database that could be used to disenfranchise eligible voters across the country.

“The Trump administration’s intrusion into state election administration is unprecedented in the history of the United States and entirely unwarranted,” said Doug Poland, Law Forward’s Director of Litigation. “WEC is acting within its authority to withhold this information, which is clearly protected under state law. The data being sought is also protected by federal law that prohibits the creation of a national voter database of the type that the administration appears to be assembling.”

According to news reports, these efforts are being conducted with the involvement of the Department of Homeland Security and individuals who have previously sought to compel states to engage in aggressive purges of registered voters or have abused voter data to mass challenge voters in other states.

“The DOJ has made no secret about its intent to share sensitive information gathered from state voter rolls with agencies like ICE and DHS. If provided this data, the Justice Department could easily manipulate the data to spread disinformation about voting and attempt to baselessly target eligible voters and remove them from the rolls,” said Ryan Cox, legal director at the ACLU of Wisconsin. “We’ve seen this play out in numerous other states, and there is no reason to believe that this administration wouldn’t weaponize Wisconsinites’ private data toward those same ends. We must prevent this federal power grab and protect our democracy from these corrupt partisan stunts.”

Common Cause is asking the federal court to allow it to intervene as a defendant in the case to protect the voting and privacy rights of its members and all Wisconsin voters. Others seeking to intervene as defendants include members of groups at risk of disenfranchisement, including voters who are naturalized citizens or who have a prior felony conviction. These registered voters could have inaccurate or out-of-date information in state and federal data sets.

"Unelected Washington bureaucrats obsessed with spreading election conspiracies have no right to your private data,” said Bianca Shaw, Common Cause’s Wisconsin State Director. “This directive recklessly puts voters’ private data at risk so the Trump administration can score cheap political points. Common Cause will keep fighting to protect voters’ data privacy.”

“The federal government’s request for sensitive voter data jeopardizes not only Wisconsinites’ right to vote, but also their right to privacy, which is protected by state and federal law,” said Megan Keenan, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “USDOJ’s lack of transparency about safeguards, access, and uses of sensitive voter data raises serious concerns about misuse or abuse — including risks that this information could be weaponized to justify aggressive voter purges that wrongfully remove eligible voters from the rolls. We stand with Wisconsin voters and against this unlawful federal overreach.”

The DOJ lawsuit was filed in federal court in Madison on December 18, 2025, one week after the bipartisan WEC voted against releasing this information, citing state law. In addition to filing its complaint, the DOJ also filed a motion asking the federal court to order WEC to turn over the requested voter data. Wisconsin is among the 21 states, as well as the District of Columbia, that the Trump administration has sued to obtain voter data, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Before the case proceeds, the federal court will likely rule on various motions, including the motions to intervene and, if Common Cause is permitted to intervene, on its motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Common Cause previously filed a lawsuit in Nebraska to protect state voter data and has joined with the ACLU Voting Rights Project to file motions to intervene as defendants in DOJ lawsuits against Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington D.C. to protect voters’ sensitive data.