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The Trump administration Monday appealed a federal judge’s decision to dismiss its case against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, from whom it’s trying to pry sensitive voter information.
The U.S. Department of Justice has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., for their refusal to turn over unredacted voter rolls to the federal government. Federal judges have dismissed 22 of the cases so far.
A federal appeals court already upheld a judge’s dismissal of the administration’s case seeking voter information in Michigan, and the full court denied the department’s request to reconsider. Attorney General Todd Blanche this week signaled the possibility of taking the voter rolls cases to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The department sued Colorado in December to demand a copy of its statewide voter registration list that includes full names, dates of birth, addresses and identification numbers. The department first requested that information in May 2025, and then again in December after Griswold shared only publicly available voter information.
“The DOJ has lost every lawsuit and appeal they have filed in their attempts to access sensitive voter information from the states,” Griswold said in a statement. “Trump and his DOJ have no right to Coloradans’ sensitive voter information, and we hope the District Court’s decision is upheld.”
The Trump administration has said it has sought voter information from states to ensure compliance with federal election laws. None of the laws the federal government used to justify its request — the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act — require disclosure of the sensitive data.
Lawsuits seeking voter data from states are one of several actions the Trump administration has taken to increase the federal government’s role in elections and to influence this year’s midterm elections.
This story originally appeared in Colorado Newsline, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
