League of Women Voters of Alaska v. Dahlstrom

Since the beginning of the second Trump Administration, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued requests for states to provide registered voters’ personal data. This data could be shared with the Department of Homeland Security for criminal and immigration investigations.  

Alaska was among the states that received these requests. The DOJ requested the unredacted voter list that included voters’ full name, date of birth, residential address, and either their state-issued driver license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. The DOJ claimed the data was necessary to ensure compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). 

After initially providing only the publicly available voter list, on December 19, 2025, the Lieutenant Governor of Alaska, Nancy Dahlstrom, agreed to provide the entire, unredacted voter list to the DOJ and state election officials signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the DOJ. The list was transmitted on December 23, 2025.

Under the MOU’s terms, the Department would analyze the unredacted voter list via an unspecified process, notify state election officials about, “voter list maintenance issues, insufficiencies, inadequacies, deficiencies, anomalies, or concerns.” Alaska state election officials would then be required to remove those voters flagged as ineligible from the rolls within 45 days after being notified.  

On April 22, 2026, the League of Women Voters of Alaska (“LWVAK”) and the Alaska Black Caucus filed a state court lawsuit in the Superior Court in the Third Judicial District at Anchorage.  The lawsuit asserted the MOU and disclosure of Alaska voters’ private data violated the state constitution and state laws in the following ways.  

Violation of the right to privacy under Art. 1, Section 22 of the Alaska Constitution 

The plaintiffs argued that handing over the unredacted voter list violated Alaska voters’ right to privacy. In particular, the complaint pointed to the statement on the Division of Elections website promising to keep information like social security numbers and driver's license numbers confidential.  

Violation of the right to vote under Art. 5, Section 1 of the Alaska Constitution 

The plaintiffs also argued that the MOU violated the Alaska Constitution’s protection of the right to vote for qualified voters, by requiring state election officials to follow DOJ’s demands for voter purges derived from an unspecified process, which would risk purging eligible voters. 

Violation of state voter list maintenance laws  

The plaintiffs pointed out that the provision of the MOU requiring removal of voters flagged as ineligible within 45 days of being notified by DOJ directly conflicted with several state voter list maintenance laws, and that therefore, the defendants had no authority to consent to the MOU.  

Violation of the right to due process under Art. 1, Section 7 of the Alaska Constitution 

LWVAK and the Alaska Black Caucus stated that due process protections in the state constitution also applied to the removal of the right to vote from citizens. Because the MOU required deregistration of voters flagged by DOJ as ineligible within 45 days of notification, without providing for any apparent notice or opportunity to challenge removal, it violated Alaska voters’ right to due process.  

The plaintiffs asked the court to declare the defendants had no legal authority to enter into the MOU, forbid the state from sending any more private voter data to DOJ, or to remove voters unless the removals followed Alaska state law, and take reasonable efforts to ensure DOJ destroyed the private voter information previously shared with it. 

LWVAK and the Alaska Black Caucus were represented in this matter by the ACLU of Alaska and ACLU Voting Rights Project.