Secretaries of State Demand Answers from U.S Department of Justice & U.S Department of Homeland Security Regarding Use of Voter Data

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read joins letter with Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, and eight others.

Today, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read joined Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold, along with eight other Secretaries of State from across the country, in demanding answers regarding the U.S Department of Justice’s (DOJ) sharing of voter data with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

DHS, the department which oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP), among other agencies, recently reported receipt of voter data from the DOJ — raising serious concerns over the improper sharing and use of said data.

“This is exactly why I refused to give up Oregonians private voter data: because we can’t trust how it will be used by this lawless, cruel administration. I’m deeply concerned that they are hiding the truth from the American people, they are not properly securing this data, and they’ll use it to keep tearing families and communities apart,” said Secretary Read.

Earlier this year, Secretaries of State across the country received requests for unredacted statewide voter registration from the DOJ, which would include voters’ dates of birth, partial social security numbers, and complete state driver’s license numbers.

Secretary Read was one of the recipients of the unredacted voter registration list requests, though he declined to provide Oregonian’s private voter data, citing a lack of federal authority in his response.

In their letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, signatory Secretaries of State referenced two meetings in which senior officials at DOJ and DHS shared misleading and contradictory explanations about the intended use of the requested voter data.

In a call on August 28, 2025, DOJ officials asserted that the voter data would be used solely to assess compliance with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) list-maintenance requirements. Yet on September 11, 2025, DHS confirmed that it had received voter data and would be entering it into the SAVE system— despite a DHS official previously denying the receipt of said voter data earlier that same day.

Signatories have demanded a response to a series of questions regarding the use, sharing, and security of the requested voter data by Friday, November 21^st.

The full letter can be read here.

Signatories include:

• Arizona – Secretary of State Adrian Fontes
• California – Secretary of State Shirley Weber
• Colorado- Secretary of State Jena Griswold
• Maine – Secretary of State Shenna Bellows
• Minnesota – Secretary of State Steve Simon
• Nevada – Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar
• New Mexico – Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse
• Oregon – Secretary of State Tobias Read
• Vermont – Secretary of State Sarha Copeland Hanzas
• Washington – Secretary of State Steve Hobbs