Court Cases

Representing two Alaska voters, the League of Women Voters of Alaska, and Common Cause, ACLU of Alaska and ACLU National moved to intervene in United States v. Alaska, a frivolous lawsuit seeking to prevent from the State of Alaska from certifying its election results if the incumbent U.S. Senator does not win the election. On November 1, 2026, the court granted the Motion to Dismiss, rejecting DOJ’s lawsuit because the relief the federal government sought was illegal, would have disrupted Alaska’s elections on the eve of voting, and would have violated Alaskans’ right to a secret ballot.

In May 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice issued demands for full, unredacted voter rolls from almost every state and the District of Columbia in a reported effort to create an unauthorized national voter database. The state of Alaska complied with this effort, agreed to share constitutionally protected information with the DOJ, and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) where the state also agreed to promptly “clean” its voter list at the DOJ’s later instruction. Alaska was in the minority when it complied with this request; twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia refused to share the sensitive information contained in their voter registration lists. The State of Alaska agreed to share confidential information including names, the full name, date of birth, residential address, state driver’s license number, or the last four digits of the voter’s social security number. However, revealing this information puts Alaskans’ identities and voting records at risk. The suit contends that the disclosure of sensitive voter information to the DOJ violates Alaskans’ right to privacy and that the actions agreed to in the MOU conflict with voter list maintenance requirements under Alaska law, risking the unlawful disenfranchisement of Alaska voters.