Elections board asks court to dismiss Trump DOJ suit seeking KY voter rolls
The Kentucky Board of Elections is asking a federal court to dismiss the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit seeking access to all information in Kentucky’s voter registration rolls.
The state has provided a redacted voter registration list to the Department of Justice, but Secretary of State Michael Adams and the elections board have refused to release personal information including partial social security numbers and drivers’ license numbers.
The DOJ filed suit against Adams and members of the board late last month in U.S. District Court in Frankfort, seeking to force the data to be released.
Karen Sellers, executive director of the Board of Elections, said in a news release Tuesday that the board “is committed to complying with state and federal law.”
“The Board works diligently to maintain clean voter rolls while also protecting the sensitive personal information of Kentucky’s voters,” Sellers said. “We have worked with federal partners for many years to strengthen election integrity, and we remain committed to that cooperation. At the same time, the Board believes the courts should resolve the legal questions presented in this case so that election officials across the country have clear guidance about the scope of federal authority.”
Kentucky is one of more than two dozen states that have been sued by the Justice Department over access to voter rolls.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office said last month that the AG’s office has “broad authority to request election records under the Civil Rights Act of 1960,” and access to the lists is needed so they “can be cross-checked effectively for improper registrations.”
“Accurate, well-maintained voter rolls are a requisite for the election integrity that the American people deserve,” Bondi wrote. “This latest series of litigation underscores that this Department of Justice is fulfilling its duty to ensure transparency, voter roll maintenance, and secure elections across the country.”
Adams has said the information in the rolls is protected by law.
“Kentucky’s elections are a national success story, and the Department of Justice has repeatedly acknowledged in court our successful work to clean up the dirty voter rolls I inherited,” Adams wrote in a statement when the suit was filed. “Kentucky law protects voters’ personal information, and I will not voluntarily commit a data breach by providing Kentuckians’ personal data to the federal bureaucracy unless a court order tells me to.”
On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky announced that had filed a motion to intervene in the case on behalf of two civic groups — the League of Women Voters of Kentucky and the New Americans Initiative — and two individuals. They say the DOJ’s effort to obtain the information is a breach of privacy and violates state and federal law.
The Kentucky Alliance for Retired Americans has also filed a motion to intervene in the case, saying “this unlawful demand intrudes not only upon Kentucky’s constitutional prerogative to maintain and protect its own voter registration list — and the explicit guarantees it has made to voters that their private information will not be shared — but also upon the privacy rights of Kentucky voters whose data will be disclosed if DOJ prevails.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2026 at 7:22 PM.
