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By The RepresentUs Team February 5, 2026 |
📌 Why this matters: After federal immigration agents shot and killed an American citizen in Minneapolis for the second time in the same month, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota with a disturbing offer: turn over the state’s sensitive voter roll data to the federal government to “bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota.”
This demand is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to build a centralized national voter database using sensitive state data. It is also part of a larger pattern of the executive branch reaching beyond its constitutional limits to assert control over elections, a power that belongs only to the states and Congress.
Free and fair elections are essential to our constitutional structure, and voting in them is one of the main ways we Americans can hold our political leaders to account. The Trump administration’s actions raise concern about federal efforts to interfere with states’ ability to hold free and fair elections and limit voters’ ability to exercise their rights.
What are voter rolls?
Voter rolls are the official lists of people who are registered to vote in an upcoming election within a specific jurisdiction.
They are maintained by state and local election officials, not the federal government.
They’re essential for running elections. Election officials use them to:
- Determine who is eligible to vote
- Plan how many ballots to print
- Decide how many polling places and voting machines are needed
- Hire and assign poll workers
- Notify voters about upcoming elections or absentee ballot options
Public vs private voter rolls
Nearly every state has two versions of its voter rolls:
Public voter rolls typically include information such as
- First name
- Last Name
- Date of birth
- Sometimes mailing address
Private voter rolls are a more complete version of the public voter rolls and include potentially sensitive information such as
- Driver’s license numbers
- Social security numbers
These private rolls are maintained by state election officials and traditionally cannot be accessed by anyone, not even the federal government.
It is precisely this private voter data that the Justice Department is now demanding from Minnesota and other states.
What is the Department of Justice demanding from Minnesota?
In January 2026, after heavily-armed federal immigration agents executed a 37-year-old American ICU nurse in broad daylight, the second time an American citizen was killed by agents in Minneapolis that month, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz outlining what she called “common sense solutions” that could “bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota”.
One of Bondi’s “solutions” was that Minnesota turn over its full voter rolls to the Department of Justice so they can verify that “Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law”.
Minnesota is not alone. The Justice Department is currently suing roughly two dozen states in an effort to get them to turn over their private, unredacted voter rolls. Notably, every state being sued is one that Donald Trump lost in the 2020 election.
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This is part of the federal government’s larger push to build a nationwide voter database
In 2025, the Department of Justice began compiling the largest collection of national voter data in U.S. history using states’ data.
The Trump administration has framed this as an issue of election security and election integrity even though voter fraud in the United States is extremely rare. Across hundreds of millions of votes cast over decades, confirmed voter fraud cases amount to only a tiny fraction of a percent and have never been shown to affect the outcome of a federal election.
Voting rights experts and advocates are warning us that the people who sought to overturn the 2020 election are the same people who are now leading and staffing the federal government’s effort to get these voter rolls from states.
This move to consolidate and build a centralized national database of Americans’ personal information is something that Americans and politicians of both major political parties have long rejected. The first Trump administration tried something similar but gave up after forty-four states refused to hand over most voter data.
A disturbing pattern of federal overreach is emerging
The executive branch’s push to get states’ private voter data is not an isolated incident. We’ve also seen:
- Illegal executive orders attempting to rewrite election rules
- Efforts by the Justice Department to access voting machines
- Threats to pursue criminal investigations of election officials
- Federal law enforcement executing a search warrant at a county elections office
- Trump calling for Republicans to “nationalize” the voting process
These incidents point to a bigger pattern of the executive branch attempting to take the power to regulate and administer elections, power that the Constitution does not give to the executive branch. The Department of Justice’s role also raises concerns about politicized investigations and prosecutions that could intimidate voters and state officials ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
What does the Constitution have to say about this?
The Constitution is very clear: the power to regulate and administer elections belongs to the states or Congress, not the executive branch.
Article I Section 4, “The Election Clause”:
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.
Whether through illegal executive orders or attempts to extract sensitive voter data from states, the executive branch is pushing beyond its constitutional limits.
Congress needs to protect our privacy and safeguard our elections
The role of Congress is clear. Members of Congress are responsible for:
- Holding the Executive Branch accountable for corruption and abuses of power
- Upholding and defending the Constitution
- Representing the best interests of their constituents
Right now, we need our Members of Congress to find the courage to stand up, speak out, and push back against any attempts by the executive branch to interfere with elections or control how they are run.