Legal Updates
Federal Litigation: Common Cause and four voters sued the Justice Department this week to block it from compiling a national voter database that the watchdog warns allows the government to surveil and disenfranchise millions of Americans. Common Cause, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union for D.C., argue the database’s creation and its use of the Department of Homeland Security’s Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements system clearly violates federal statutes, the separation of powers doctrine and the Constitution. “The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an illegal and unprecedented quest to stockpile millions of Americans’ confidential voter data in a system of records within its Civil Rights Division,” Common Cause claims in the 58-page lawsuit. “Never before has a federal agency centralized this volume of Americans’ voting data in a single system of records. And in so doing, DOJ has flouted statutory safeguards designed to ensure transparency and public participation in the federal government’s collection of Americans’ personal information.” Since President Donald Trump’s return to office, the Justice Department has demanded 48 states and the District turn over unreacted statewide voter registration lists, many of which contain sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, signatures, birth dates, addresses, places of birth, party affiliation and voter history. To date, the Justice Department has sued the District and the 30 states that have pushed back on the demands in full, including: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington. According to Common Cause, the Department of Homeland Security “haphazardly” expanded its SAVE system, which was previously a limited tool for certain immigration-related databases, to conduct mass citizenship checks based on unreliable data. “The faulty new system and flawed comparison methodology has already falsely identified significant numbers of U.S. citizens as noncitizens, imperiling their fundamental right to vote,” Common Cause said. “And the system has proven especially unreliable for citizens born outside of the United States (e.g., naturalized, derived and acquired citizens), who are at a higher risk of being falsely identified as noncitizens.”
Alaska: Voting and civil rights groups sued Alaska elections officials, alleging that their sharing of the state’s full voter registration list with the U.S. Department of Justice violates the state constitution. The Alaska lawsuit was filed in state court against state Division of Elections officials by the League of Women Voters of Alaska and Alaska Black Caucus. It alleges the handing over of personal data on the voter list violates the right to privacy under the state constitution. It also says the memorandum of understanding violates due process by allowing the Justice Department to flag voters for removal “without any apparent notice or process for impacted voters to challenge those decisions.” The lawsuit names as defendants Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees the division, and division Director Carol Beecher. Sam Curtis, a spokesperson with the state Department of Law, said by email that it would be premature to comment on specific claims raised in the lawsuit. But Curtis said the department has previously explained in public hearings that state law “expressly permits the sharing of this information for authorized governmental purposes. That statute is on the books, and we will defend it.”
Arizona: Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap (R) will be given more authority in running elections after a judge sided with his office in a prolonged legal fight with the local board that shares responsibility for overseeing the vote. Heap sued the predominantly Republican county board of supervisors last summer, alleging it had illegally taken control of certain aspects of election administration. Heap claimed the board transferred funding, IT staff and some key functions – including management of ballot drop boxes and establishing early voting sites – away from his office through an agreement negotiated with his predecessor, whom he had recently defeated in a GOP primary. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney mostly sided with Heap’s office in his ruling. The board of supervisors “acted unlawfully and exceeded its statutory authority by seizing the recorder’s personnel, systems and equipment and refusing to return them” to the recorder, he wrote. Blaney also ruled that the recorder’s office is responsible for overseeing in-person early voting, among other duties, while the board is responsible for other operations, such as selecting election day voting locations, supplying polling locations and hiring poll workers. “The board’s assertion of plenary authority over election administration through its general supervisory powers is inconsistent with Arizona law,” the judge wrote.
California: Laura Lee Yourex, 63 of Costa Mesa, will be sentenced in October for registering her dog to vote in what she claimed was an attempt to expose election fraud. Yourex pleaded guilty April 10 to misdemeanor knowing registration of a nonexistent person to vote. As part of her plea deal with prosecutors, felony counts of perjury, procuring or offering a false or forged document to be filed, registered or recorded, and not being entitled to vote at an election were dismissed. She is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 16. Yourex illegally cast ballots in her dog’s name in the 2021 gubernatorial recall election and 2022 primary election, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office. Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page said his office was alerted to the fraud by former Huntington Beach City Atty. Michael Gates, who went on to work as an attorney with the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department. He has since left that post. “I received an email from former Huntington Beach City Atty. Michael Gates who said a voter talked to him and shared that her dog received a ballot,” Page said. “I quickly referred that to the district attorney to investigate.’’
Indiana: The law banning the use of public university student identification cards for voting is back in effect after an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit — as early voting for the state’s May 5 primary continues. A federal judge last week blocked enforcement when he granted a preliminary injunction sought by voter advocates alleging the ban “deliberately abridges young voters’ right to vote.” The plaintiffs include Count Us IN, Women4Change Indiana and Indiana University student Josh Montagne. The day after the injunction was set, Montagne used his student ID to vote on IU’s Bloomington campus, he confirmed to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. The state of Indiana filed an emergency motion for a suspension of the preliminary injunction. The appeals court granted the motion, pending appeal, and promised a “reasoned decision” within two business days. The state has maintained in court filings that the ban would impact a small number of students and that any burden created by the change is “minimal.” The judge and plaintiffs estimated between 40,000 and 90,000 students in Indiana could be affected.
Kansas: Former Coldwater Mayor Joe Ceballos reached a plea agreement with the Kansas Attorney General’s Office to drop the severity of charges related to voting illegally from six felony counts to three counts of disorderly election conduct, each a class B nonperson misdemeanor, court documents said. Ceballos is a legal permanent resident of the United States and a citizen of Mexico. During the interview process in 2025 to become an American citizen, Ceballos said he had voted in the past, which triggered his arrest. The plea agreement, finalized in Comanche County District Court, means deportation proceedings aren’t likely although that’s never off the table, said Ceballos’ attorney, Jess Hoeme. “Normally a felony or a crime of moral turpitude punishable by up to a year in jail would be the kinds of dispositions in a case that would prompt removal proceedings,” he said. “We were able to completely avoid that.” Ceballos won’t serve jail time and will pay a fine of $2,000, Hoeme said. He was given a six-month underlying sentence on each count, which was suspended, according to the plea agreement.
New Hampshire: New Hampshire’s secretary of state is pushing back against the federal government asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit over access to the state’s voter database. The U.S. Department of Justice filed the lawsuit after the state refused to turn over a full voter list. In filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, state officials said they are protecting voters’ information, arguing that the federal government is asking for things that are personal and that the state is not allowed to give out. The lawsuit calls for the state to hand over voter data, including names, addresses, dates of birth and either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. The federal government says it needs the data to check elections, but the state says it’s not required or allowed to share the information. “The state law is very clear that confidential voter data, data that is not part of the public checklist, is to be kept private and confidential,” Secretary of State David Scanlan said. “And that’s my charge.” A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for April 29.
Rhode Island: U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit demanding detailed voter data from Rhode Island, a decision that follows similar rulings in a handful of other states. McElroy sided with Rhode Island’s top election officials and civil rights advocates, writing that federal law does not permit the U.S. Department of Justice “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here.” McElroy’s decision is similar to other rejections by federal judges across country since the Justice Department began seeking detailed voter data from the states. The information includes dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. “The executive branch seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states,” Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore said in a statement. “But the power of our democratic republic, built on three, coequal branches of government, is clearer than ever before.”
South Carolina: The South Carolina Supreme Court heard arguments this week in the unresolved dispute over the 2023 Atlantic Beach mayoral election during a live-streamed hearing. The court is tasked with deciding if a circuit court judge erred in upholding the municipal election commission’s finding that a new election was required after fraudulent ballots were discovered. The dispute stems from the November 2023 mayoral election in Atlantic Beach, where candidates Josephine Isom and John David were vying for the office. After an initial vote count showed Isom leading, 19 provisional ballots were added, with 18 of them counted, shifting the totals to favor David. Isom challenged these provisional votes, and 14 were later found to be fraudulent, prompting the municipal election commission to order a new election because the ballots were mixed and could not be separated. Isom’s attorney, Kenneth Davis, argued that a winner could have been declared without a new election. Davis contends that since the 14 fraudulent ballots were known to come from the provisional votes, with two cast for Isom and the rest for David, simple math could determine the outcome was 62-53 in favor of Isom.
Texas: Some Dallas County Republicans sued the county elections department in a bid to require voters to cast ballots for the May 26 primary runoff at specific polling places in their precincts rather than any location in the county. That precinct-based voting system on primary election day in March created chaos. Local party leadership is trying to reverse a decision made by its former chair, who resigned last week after facing backlash for agreeing to use countywide voting on election day in the runoff. But early voting for the runoff election starts May 18, and Dallas County election officials say it’s too late to change course. The lawsuit, filed in the Texas Fifth Court of Appeals by Barry Wernick, a Republican precinct chair and a candidate for Dallas County Commissioner District 2, is asking the court to require the county to use precinct polling places for the runoff election. Wernick is arguing the former party chair, Allen West, didn’t have the authority to agree to the use of countywide voting. Thirty-one party members signed declarations supporting the lawsuit, according to the filing. In addition, the county party’s executive committee voted in favor of using precinct polling places for the runoff election.
Wisconsin: The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in a case brought by a conservative group that could determine whether sensitive information about people judged mentally incapable of voting is a public record. It’s the second time justices heard arguments in this case, which previously had been caught up in conflicting opinions issued by two of the state’s appeals court districts. It also became an attack point used by liberal Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor in the most recent Wisconsin Supreme Court election, which she won by 20 points. Her opponent, Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar, wrote an opinion supportive of the conservative group’s position, which was unusual because it contradicted another appeals court ruling in a separate case on the same issue. The key question before justices is whether the information in Notices of Voting Eligibility should be publicly accessible. Courts send those forms to election officials after a judge in a guardianship case determines someone is not competent to cast a ballot. State law says “the fact that an individual has been found incompetent … is accessible to any person who demonstrates to the custodian of the records a need for that information.”
Wyoming: District Court Judge Michael McGrady dismissed proceedings to determine whether Becky Hadlock, who resigned earlier this month as Weston County clerk, should be removed from office for her conduct during and after the 2024 general election, court records show. McGrady granted a motion by both parties to dismiss the case April 16, one week after Hadlock resigned from office. Hadlock resigned April 9, one day after she was arrested and charged with violating the election code as an official and one count of falsifying election documents. Both are felonies that carry maximum penalties of up to five years in prison. “The Parties declare that [Hadlock] has resigned from the office of Weston County Clerk, effective April 9, 2026, and the Weston County Commissioners confirmed the finality of [her] resignation by formally declaring the office vacant on April 14, 2026. These actions have rendered the petition for removal of [Hadlock] moot,” according to the filing filed by both parties in the case seeking its dismissal. “The parties therefore agree and stipulate that this action is dismissed with prejudice, with each party to bear their own costs.” Since the court granted the motion, the case is now closed.
Michael H. Drucker
