With more than 23 million ballots already cast, according to University of Florida Election Lab figures cited by The Guardian, the fight over who controls voter data has moved firmly into the courts. This week's rulings mostly went against the federal government.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge David Barlow dismissed with prejudice the Justice Department's lawsuit seeking Utah's complete, unredacted voter registration database. He held that the statewide list is not a record that "comes into" the election chief's possession under Title III of the Civil Rights Act, so the attorney general cannot demand it under that law. Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson had refused to hand it over, citing state privacy law, because the file includes addresses, birth dates and partial Social Security numbers, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. The paper said the department is likely to appeal.

A day earlier, a federal judge in Oakland ordered a halt to a Homeland Security investigation into suspected noncitizen registrants in nine states, including Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, until polls close Nov. 3. Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin called the government's lists "voluminous and unreliable." She found that the probe was intimidating citizens who do voter assistance work and noted that agents had been told to take no more than 12 minutes per flagged person. According to the AP, the department has sued the 30 states that refused to turn over their voter rolls and has lost every one of those cases so far. The judge put her order on hold until Friday to allow an appeal.

California remains the open front. The Justice Department asked the 9th Circuit to intervene before a lower-court judge had ruled on its request to stop the state from counting more than 20,000 mail ballots it says likely belong to noncitizens, Reuters reported via NBC News. On Friday, federal prosecutors also sent county registrars letters demanding that those ballots be set aside for verification, the AP reported.

For people running voter contact, the practical effects are easy to see. These rulings decide how much voter-file data leaves state hands, whether voter-assistance volunteers face federal scrutiny in the final stretch, and whether some mail voters could see their ballots held. Each of those questions is still open for appeal with Election Day 10 days out.

Why it matters

Courts are currently limiting federal access to state voter files and federal investigations of voters, but appeals are pending. The California ballot dispute could still affect how some mail ballots are counted.

Sources

• U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Order granting motions to dismiss, Case 2:26-cv-00166-DBB (Oct. 23, 2026): https://www.lwv.org/sites/default/files/2026-10/2026-10-23_DUtah_order-grant-mtd.pdf
• Salt Lake Tribune, "Judge tosses Trump's DOJ suit seeking Utah's full voter rolls" (Oct. 23, 2026): https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2026/10/23/judge-tosses-trumps-doj-suit/
• AP via Spotlight PA, "Federal judge orders Trump administration to halt noncitizen voting investigation in Pa., other states" (Oct. 23, 2026): https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/10/federal-judge-noncitizen-voting-trump-halt-elections/
• Reuters via NBC News, "Justice Department asks appeals court to intervene in California ballot case" (Oct. 23, 2026): https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/justice-department-asks-appeals-court-intervene-california-ballot-case-rcna605157
• AP News, "DOJ demands some California counties set aside ballots belonging to suspected noncitizen voters" (Oct. 23, 2026): https://apnews.com/article/california-department-of-justice-noncitizen-voting-election-0a70161dba31a833fa75507a7484853b
• The Guardian, "Surging turnout, with Democrats voting more: key takeaways from early voting data" (Oct. 23, 2026): https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/23/early-voting-data-key-takeaways

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