Justice Department sues Colorado secretary of state to force release of detailed voter information

Nick Coltrain, The Denver Post on Dec 11, 2025

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DENVER — The U.S. Department of Justice sued Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Thursday to demand that she release the state’s full voter registration list without any redactions.

The lawsuit follows months of demands from the federal law enforcement agency for voter and election data and other information about Colorado’s and other states’ voting systems. President Donald Trump also has made repeated demands that the state release Tina Peters, the former county clerk convicted of felonies related to her pursuit of the president’s conspiracy theories about voter fraud, from serving a sentence in state prison.

The DOJ lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, alleges that Griswold violated the federal Civil Rights Act by refusing to provide the records.

“This proceeding arises from the Attorney General’s investigation into Colorado compliance with federal election law,” states the lawsuit against Griswold.

DOJ officials have sued more than a dozen states in similar actions, including six new lawsuits announced on Dec. 2.

The demand against Colorado includes records of registered voters’ full names, dates of birth, residential addresses, and either their state driver’s license numbers, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers or the unique identifiers provided under the Help America Vote Act.

In a statement, Griswold said she had already released publicly available voter data to comply with the law. She said she would continue to refuse to turn over voters’ personal information.

“We will not hand over Coloradans’ sensitive voting information to Donald Trump,” Griswold said in a statement. “He does not have a legal right to the information. I will continue to protect our elections and democracy, and look forward to winning this case.”

An attempt to reach the DOJ for comment was not immediately successful. Previously, the DOJ has portrayed the cases against other states as attempts to ensure the accuracy of voter lists.

“Accurate voter rolls are the cornerstone of fair and free elections, and too many states have fallen into a pattern of noncompliance with basic voter roll maintenance,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a news release last week. “The Department of Justice will continue filing proactive election integrity litigation until states comply with basic election safeguards.”

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