Utah Election: Judge Dismisses DOJ Bid for Voter Files

Utah Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson retained control of the state’s voter records after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice. District Judge David Barlow, a Trump appointee, ruled on Friday that the administration did not prove its legal basis for demanding the data. The decision comes days before the midterm elections and marks another setback for the federal government’s efforts to access state voter rolls.

The Justice Department sought to compel Henderson to hand over a comprehensive list of Utah voters. The requested data included names, birthdays, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. Federal lawyers argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 requires officials to make voting records available for federal inspection once they come into possession of them.

Barlow rejected that interpretation. He cited a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stating that an ordinary English speaker would not say a person has come into possession of something they created and maintained. Henderson’s office created and maintains the statewide voter-registration database used for list maintenance. The judge determined that the specific statutory language did not mandate the release of this self-generated data.

The DOJ countered that the law’s purpose was to serve as an enforcement tool for federal election laws. They argued that excluding the statewide database would render the statute ineffective. Barlow disagreed, stating that judges have no warrant to elevate vague invocations of statutory purpose over the words Congress chose. He dismissed the complaint with prejudice, preventing the department from refiling the same claim without an appeal.

This ruling is one of more than 25 voter-roll litigation defeats suffered by the Trump administration since it began its campaign to address alleged illegal voting. A DOJ spokeswoman confirmed the department would appeal the decision. She noted that the only appellate court to review similar cases had split on largely partisan grounds, with five judges signing onto dissents from denial of en banc review.

Henderson responded to the ruling on the social platform Threads. She stated that her office would continue to uphold the rule of law and safeguard the right to free, fair, and secure elections. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. The DOJ has three other pending cases related to voter rolls in Hawaii, Idaho, and Delaware, and it is currently appealing losses in California and Oregon.