League of Women Voters of Alaska v. Dahlstrom

Summary

In April 2026, the League of Women Voters of Alaska, Alaska Black Caucus, and the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, filed suit against Alaska officials challenging their unlawful sharing of Alaska’s complete and unredacted voter file—including confidential information— with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and agreeing to “clean” the list by removing voters at the DOJ’s request.  

The plaintiffs are represented by EPIC, the ACLU of Alaska, and the national ACLU Voting Rights Project. The lawsuit was filed in the Anchorage Superior Court in Alaska against against Nancy Dahlstrom, Lieutenant Governor for the State of Alaska, and Carol Beecher, Director of Elections for the Division of Elections.  

Background

In May 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) began demanding that every state and the District of Columbia hand over various forms of election-related records, including full copies of statewide voter registration lists that include sensitive personal information. These requests appear to be part of the Trump Administration’s broader effort to create an illegal national database. As of April 1, 2026, the DOJ had filed lawsuits against 30 states and Washington, D.C., over their failure to turn over full, unredacted voter lists. Since then, many have been dismissed.  

On July 2, 2025, the DOJ issued a demand letter to Alaska Lieutenant Governor Kathy Dahlstrom for the “most current or most updated” electronic copy of all of the fields Alaska’s statewide voter registration lists. The Alaska Division of Election (DOE) initially limited the information disclosed to the DOJ to what was publicly available. However, in a break from the majority of states, the Alaska DOE ultimately delivered its unredacted voter registration list to the DOJ on December 19, 2025. In a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Alaska and DOJ, the state ultimately agreed to remove any voters identified by the DOJ. The Division further agreed to resubmit the “cleaned” voter registration list to the DOJ.  

Alaska transferred its voter registration list to the DOJ on December 23, 2025. Sensitive information was included, such as a voter’s full name, date of birth, residential address, state driver’s license number, and/or partial social security number. When it disclosed this constitutionally-protected information, the state violated Alaskans’ privacy and created new risks to Alaskans’ voting rights.  

Plaintiff’s Lawsuit 

On April 22, 2026, the ACLU of Alaska, and the ACLU Voting Rights Project, and EPIC filed suit on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Alaska and Alaska Black Caucus (and subsequently the Alaska Public Interest Research Group). The complaint alleges that the Division of Elections’ release of confidential voter information violated Alaskans’ constitutional right to privacy, their right to vote, and their right to due process before their voter registrations are terminated.  

“Voters rightly expect public officials at all levels of government to safeguard their privacy,” states John Davisson, Deputy Director and Director of Enforcement for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “When Washington fails at that task, states must hold the line.”    

Plaintiffs are seeking permanent injunctive relief that would void the MOU, compel the destruction of any data previously shared with the DOJ, prevent the transmission of any further unredacted voter information to the DOJ, and prevent the Alaska DOE’s removal of voters from the list except as permitted by Alaska law.  

The State of Alaska moved to dismiss the complaint on June 8, 2026. The case is ongoing. 

EPIC’s Interest 

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) was established in 1994 to protect privacy, freedom of expression, and democratic values in the information age. Our mission is to secure the fundamental right to privacy in the digital age for all people through advocacy, research, and litigation.  

EPIC has a long history of protecting voter privacy and election integrity. In 2025, EPIC and a coalition of voting rights organizations challenged an illegal database built by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. DHS and SSA consolidated the sensitive and legally protected personal information of millions of voters and encouraged states to use the database to purge voter rolls. In a recent win, a federal judge in D.C. ordered the agencies to terminate the use of that expanded database.  

EPIC also successfully challenged the unlawful collection of personal voter data by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in 2017. The suit led to the halting of the unlawful gathering of personal voter data, discontinued use of an unsafe computer server, deletion of illegally obtained voter data obtained, and disbanding of the Commission. 

Since January 2025, EPIC has closely tracked the Trump administration’s efforts to consolidate and increase its access to personal information maintained by federal and state governments. Over that time, EPIC has published analysis, developed public resources, provided expertise to lawmakers and members of the press, undertaken litigation, and engaged in extensive advocacy concerning the privacy, security, and legal risks of the Trump administration’s data consolidation activities. This case is one of our efforts in fighting against the Trump administration’s privacy abuses.