DOJ Sues Arizona Secretary of State for Refusing to Clean Voter Rolls

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed lawsuits on Monday against Arizona and Connecticut for failing to produce complete voter registration lists. This action, part of a sweeping campaign under the Trump administration, now brings the total to 23 Democrat-led states facing federal lawsuits.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, is vowing to fight the suit and even daring authorities to jail him rather than comply. As the California Globe has consistently reported, bloated voter rolls riddled with inaccuracies— including dead voters and non-citizens—pose a grave threat to the sanctity of free and fair elections, and this lawsuit underscores the urgent need for transparency and accountability.

The DOJ’s complaints, filed in federal courts, allege violations of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and the Civil Rights Act of 1960 (CRA). These laws mandate proper maintenance of voter rolls and empower the Attorney General to inspect and analyze statewide lists to ensure accuracy. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi minced no words in the announcement: “This Department of Justice has now sued 23 states for failing to provide voter roll data and will continue filing lawsuits to protect American elections. Accurate voter rolls are the foundation of election integrity, and any state that fails to meet this basic obligation of transparency can expect to see us in court.” 

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that “accurate voter rolls are essential to ensuring that American citizens’ votes count only once, and only with other eligible voters.” 

In a podcast interview with Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias, Fontes declared, “They’re going to have to put me in jail if they want this information and have somebody else give it to them because I’m not going to do it.” 

He doubled down on social media, telling a DOJ attorney to “pound sand,” and vowed, “I will not turn this data over as long as I am the Secretary of State here in Arizona.”

Ok, and in the meantime pound sand… https://t.co/vfuJfiDXmd pic.twitter.com/7I7O4vaf24

— Arizona Secretary of State (@AZSecretary) January 6, 2026

Citing state and federal privacy laws, Fontes argues that releasing unredacted voter data—including sensitive personal information—would violate protections against unrestricted disclosure. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, also a Democrat, pledged to defend the state, stating, “Arizonans’ private voter registration information is not up for grabs.”

Fontes’ and Mayes’ partisan defiance relies on the stupidity of the American people (like Obamacare–in the words of Jonathan Gruber). The U.S. Government, including the IRS and numerous bureaucracies, has access to an individual’s private information that is found in voter rolls, and provides encryption for the sharing of private data.  

With Arizona election processes and elections facing continuous challenges, Kari Lake calls out the the executive branch of the state government in a simple social media post:

All the top Arizona governmental roles are fraudulently occupied.
Arizona elections are theater.
Everyone knows it.

— Kari Lake (@KariLake) January 7, 2026

The Trump DOJ’s push for voter rolls from all 50 states aims to root out ineligible voters, including non-citizens and the deceased, potentially creating a national database to cross-reference with Department of Homeland Security records. 

Critics, including leftist “nonprofits”, claim it as federal overreach, a pretext for mass purges that could disproportionately affect communities of color and students. Last year, Fontes wildly charged that handing over data to “Elon Musk and his crew of incompetents” could compromise privacy. 

Yet, as the California Globe detailed in October 2025, the DOJ has intervened in Arizona’s battles to uphold voter ID laws, supporting requirements for proof of citizenship amid revelations of nearly 50,000 federal-only voters without documentation. A settlement by America First Legal forced Arizona counties to remove non-citizens, with ongoing efforts to verify citizenship via DHS. Nationally, the DOJ uncovered over 260,000 dead registrants and thousands of non-citizens on rolls, as reported by the Globe. 

In Nevada, a similar stonewalling by the Democratic Secretary of State led to a DOJ lawsuit, highlighting a pattern of the Democratic party’s resistance to transparency that undermines faith in elections and election outcomes.  

The successful push for a Voter ID initiative in California just surpassed one million signatures for the 2026 ballot. Arizona’s GOP has pre-filed a similar amendment, aiming to enshrine Voter ID and citizenship proof. Nevadans will vote for a second time in 2026 on a constitutional amendment requiring Voter ID and citizenship proof. In 2024, 72 percent of Nevadans passed the ballot initiative. According to Nevada statute, the initiative must past twice to amend the state constitution. These efforts counter the deliberate obfuscation by blue states to maintain inflated, dirty voter rolls that enable voter fraud.

Fontes’ political theatrics smack of political posturing rather than the transparency required by federal law. Although privacy concerns are valid, federal law provides mechanisms for secure data handling. The CRA of 1960 explicitly grants the AG access for election oversight, a tool historically used to combat disenfranchisement of all Americans.

This lawsuit could set a precedent, forcing blue states to comply or face contempt. For Arizona, with its history of contested elections, clean rolls are non-negotiable. As Bondi asserts, transparency isn’t optional—it’s the bedrock of trust in democracy.