OLYMPIA, Wash. — The U.S. Department of Justice, under President Donald Trump, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs of violating federal law by refusing to hand over the state’s full voter registration database, including protected personal information, as part of a federal election-compliance review.
According to the complaint, federal attorneys say Hobbs unlawfully rejected a September request for an unredacted electronic copy of Washington’s statewide voter registration list — including names, addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers — along with voter registration application records from the previous 22 months.
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The DOJ said the request was made under authority granted by the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the National Voter Registration Act, and the Help America Vote Act.
The department told the court the demand followed its review of Washington’s data in the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s 2024 Election Administration and Voting Survey. After examining the state’s reporting, federal officials sought additional information to assess whether Washington is properly removing ineligible voters, identifying duplicate registrations, and verifying identification numbers as required under HAVA.
HAVA requires states to assign each registered voter a unique identifier and verify identification numbers during registration. DOJ attorneys argued they cannot evaluate Washington’s compliance without access to the full, unredacted list.
Hobbs rejected the request in a Sept. 23 letter, saying Washington law prohibits the release of certain personal information, including birthdates and partial Social Security or driver’s license numbers, even when the request comes from the federal government.
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Federal lawyers countered that state public-disclosure restrictions do not apply to federal investigations and said the Civil Rights Act expressly overrides conflicting state statutes. They also noted that federal law permits access to driver’s license data for enforcement purposes and that HAVA specifies the last four digits of a Social Security number are not legally considered a “Social Security number” under the federal Privacy Act.
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to order Hobbs to turn over the complete voter file within five days of any court order, delivered through a secure, encrypted portal. Prosecutors said the Civil Rights Act requires a “summary proceeding” and limits the court’s review to determining only whether the Attorney General issued a written demand and whether the records custodian refused to comply. The court, they said, cannot weigh the DOJ’s investigative motives or narrow the scope of the request.
The lawsuit does not allege problems with Washington’s voting system itself, only that Hobbs’ refusal is blocking a federal compliance review.
If the judge grants the DOJ’s request, the state would be required to provide the full voter list, including protected personal data, for federal inspection, copying, and analysis.
