Trump Administration Tries Again to Get Wisconsin’s Voter Registration Data
Emergency motion from US Department of Justice appeals federal court ruling it lost.
Voters enter a polling location Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at the McFarland Municipal Center in McFarland, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
President Donald Trump’s administration is continuing its effort to force the Wisconsin Elections Commission to turn over unredacted Wisconsin voter data after being rebuked by a federal judge last month.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is appealing the judge’s decision dismissing the case, suggesting “many” absentee ballots could be sent to “fraudulent” registrants in November unless it audits the voter roll.
The Trump administration has been demanding unredacted voter registration lists from Wisconsin and dozens of other states for the past year, claiming the federal Civil Rights Act of 1960 and Help America Vote Act entitle the U.S. Attorney General “sweeping power to obtain Federal election records.”
Since his defeat in 2020, Trump has repeatedly made false claims about widespread election fraud, focusing particularly on swing states like Wisconsin. His administration’s attempt to order the Wisconsin Elections Commission to produce unredacted voter data coincides with a proposed U.S. Postal Service rule that would not allow absentee ballots to be mailed unless the voter is on a list approved by the federal government.
The election commission has argued it gave the DOJ publicly available data on Wisconsin’s 3.6 million registered voters. It also said the Civil Rights Division changed its legal justification for its demand, landing on the Civil Rights Act, which aimed to ensure equal opportunity to voters and to prevent discriminatory practices that blocked access to the ballot box.
U.S. District Judge James Peterson of Madison dismissed the DOJ suit last month, ruling the commission isn’t required to produce the unredacted registration list under the Civil Rights Act. His was the ninth federal court to dismiss the DOJ’s attempt according to the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
The DOJ is now asking the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn Peterson’s order. It filed an emergency motion, Friday, asking for a decision before Wisconsin’s Aug. 11 primary and Nov. 3 general elections.
“Weeks before November 3, election officials will be mailing absentee ballots to hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin voters, with many of those ballots potentially going to ineligible voters, fraudulent registrants, or other individuals who should not have been registered,” the DOJ claimed. “Wisconsin voters need to know that their election is secure and that non-citizens, deceased individuals, former residents, nonresidents, and voters with multiple records are not registered to vote in that election.”
A spokesperson for the Wisconsin Elections Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the federal government’s appeal or emergency motion.
The DOJ argues Peterson’s ruling is “contrary to the law as written” and a fast court schedule is “necessary to secure the elections in Wisconsin and permit Wisconsin the time to clean its voter rolls prior to the election this fall.”
“If anything, a rapid resolution of this matter will permit Wisconsin to properly conduct an election this fall without the specter of non-citizens and ineligible voters remaining on its voter rolls,” said the DOJ.
Several outside parties including the liberal advocacy group Common Cause have intervened in the case. In a statement, the group’s Senior Director of Litigation Maryam Jazini Dorcheh said the DOJ’s appeal is a “last ditch effort to get it’s hands on Wisconsinites’ private data” and the group won’t stop fighting to keep it “safe from federal overreach.”
“We fully expect the 7th Circuit to join the lower courts in rejecting this blatant attempt to compromise Wisconsin voters’ privacy,” she said.
In total, the Trump administration has filed lawsuits against 30 states seeking unredacted voter registration lists according to the State Democracy Research Initiative.
Trump administration appealing failed attempt to get unredacted voter registration data was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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