Texas Surrenders 18 Million Voter Records to Federal Government Without a Fight

Texas handed over the personal information of every registered voter in the state to the Trump administration's Justice Department on December 23. Dates of birth, driver's license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers for 18.4 million Texans now sit in federal files. Secretary of State Jane Nelson's office confirmed the transfer last week, framing compliance as routine cooperation rather than capitulation.

Twenty-three states have been sued by the Justice Department for refusing similar demands. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told Democracy Docket in a podcast interview recorded hours before his state was sued that federal officials would have to "put me in jail" before he surrenders unredacted voter rolls. Texas was not among the resisters. The Lone Star State volunteered.

The federal government began requesting voter rolls from all 50 states last fall, calling the effort essential to enforcing election law and maintaining accurate voter lists by identifying and removing ineligible voters. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told listeners of "The Charlie Kirk Show" in December that 13 states had voluntarily agreed to turn over their voter rolls. Texas made the list.

The irony burns. Dhillon spent years arguing the Constitution leaves election administration almost entirely to states and that federal involvement crosses constitutional lines. In a 2022 interview with the Foundation for Government Accountability, she said efforts by the federal government to override state authority were "completely unconstitutional and forbidden by our constitutional scheme." Now she claims the Justice Department has "sweeping" authority to seize state voter rolls and has filed lawsuits against 23 states plus Washington, D.C.

Wisconsin examined the proposed memorandum of understanding sent by the Justice Department and declined. The federal government sued Wisconsin. Texas examined the same proposal and said yes.

The proposed agreement revealed in Wisconsin's case shows what compliance means. The Justice Department would review the state's voter data for "list maintenance issues, insufficiencies, anomalies or concerns" and give the state 45 days to correct problems before requiring resubmission of the entire voter roll. Wisconsin officials and legal experts warned this timeline could violate the National Voter Registration Act, which establishes specific conditions before voters can be removed from rolls.

The Democratic National Committee fired off a letter to Nelson on Friday warning that the handover could violate federal election law. DNC Chair Ken Martin called the data transfer a "big government power grab" that invites privacy violations and threatens eligible voters with wrongful purging. DNC litigation director Daniel Freeman flagged potential violations of the National Voter Registration Act and requested records of any agreement signed between Texas and the Justice Department. The party threatened further action.

Texas has recent experience with inflated voter purge claims. In August 2024, Governor Greg Abbott announced the state had removed 6,500 noncitizens from voter rolls. A ProPublica, Texas Tribune and Votebeat investigation found the secretary of state's office had actually identified only 581 people as noncitizens. Many flagged voters turned out to be naturalized citizens whom the state incorrectly identified using outdated Department of Public Safety data from driver's license applications. The state settled a lawsuit and agreed to change its flagging procedures.

Election officials and voting rights watchdog groups have raised concerns about what the Justice Department intends to do with the information. Some suggest the administration plans to create a national database of voters. Votebeat and The Texas Tribune requested a signed copy of the memorandum of understanding governing how the voter data sharing will work. Those questions remain unanswered.

The federal lawsuits against non-compliant states include jurisdictions led by officials from both political parties. Arizona and Connecticut joined the litigation list this week. Georgia, despite Republican leadership including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, got sued in December. Those states have generally argued that voter registration falls under state responsibility and that both state and federal law prohibit sharing certain private voter information.

The Justice Department maintains federal law entitles it to the data and that withholding interferes with its ability to exercise oversight and enforce federal election laws. Attorney General Pam Bondi said any state that fails to meet what she called "this basic obligation of transparency can expect to see us in court."

Twenty-three states looked at the same request Texas received and decided litigation was preferable to compliance. They saw something worth fighting for. Texas apparently didn't.

@Santitos

@salinasmariasantos

Copyright © 2026 Maria Santos Salinas for FRONTeras.