The Trump administration is ordering officials in more than two dozen states to preserve records from the 2024 election as part of a campaign to force states to turn over detailed voter records despite repeated court losses.
The Justice Department sent letters to 29 states and the District of Columbia instructing election officials not to destroy the records. Those are places the Trump administration has sued in a bid to gain access to voter registration information that contains addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers.
The Investigation Letter
In one letter obtained by The Associated Press, a Justice Department official told Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican, that she is “under investigation” and subject to ongoing litigation over the state’s failure to turn over statewide voter registration lists.
“The purpose of this letter is to notify you of your obligations to take reasonable steps to conduct a litigation hold and preserve and retain all hard copy documents and electronically stored information,” wrote Eric Neff, acting chief of the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section.
The letter warns election officials that their “failure to preserve relevant data may constitute spoliation of evidence,” which could subject them to “civil and criminal sanctions.”
Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Civil Rights Division, said the letters were sent to ensure states do not destroy election records. “This is standard litigation practice, not a ‘threat,'” Dhillon said in a post on X.
The State Response
Henderson said in an interview that her office received the letter Friday. “No letter — and we’ve gotten a lot of letters from the Department of Justice over the past year — not a single one of them said that we were under investigation for anything,” she said. “It was a little bit alarming at first to see those words.”
Henderson said her office understands the need to hold onto records during litigation. “What’s not helpful is the constant barrage of attacks and harassment and accusations, baseless accusations, that do nothing to help secure our elections,” she said.
Arizona and Minnesota confirmed they also received the letter. “Any implication from this letter or others that implies we are not following the law is disrespectful to the work that election administrators do across Arizona and the country,” said Calli Jones, spokesperson for the Arizona office.
The Broader Conflict
The preservation demand could set the stage for the Justice Department to seek access to the states’ election records as part of the administration’s hunt for fraud. The FBI has already obtained records or election equipment related to the 2020 or 2024 elections from the most populous counties in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan.
Judges have repeatedly dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuits seeking access to the detailed state voter information. Attorney General Todd Blanche has suggested the administration might take the fight to the US Supreme Court.
The letters come as the administration continues to raise concerns about the potential for voter fraud — in particular, noncitizen voting. While voter fraud and voting by noncitizens does occur, it is rare and gets prosecuted. There has been no evidence of widespread fraud marring American elections.
The Bottom Line
The Justice Department has ordered 29 states and the District of Columbia to preserve 2024 election records as part of its campaign to obtain detailed voter data. Utah’s top elections official was told she is “under investigation.” The letters escalate a long-running conflict between the Trump administration and states over access to sensitive voter information. Judges have repeatedly dismissed the DOJ’s lawsuits, and the fight may be headed to the Supreme Court.
