​Trump administration’s attempt to obtain Colorado voter data shut down by federal judge

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from the Trump administration on Monday that sought to compel Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold to hand over sensitive voter information to the federal government.

Colorado was one of 30 states the administration sued for a refusal to supply unredacted voter information. So far, the U.S. Department of Justice has lost 20 of those cases.

“Trump and his DOJ are attacking elections and democracy,” Griswold, a Democrat, said in a statement. “We will not let them win. Today’s victory affirms that Trump’s DOJ has no right to Coloradans’ sensitive voter information.”

The DOJ sued Colorado in December to demand a copy of its statewide voter registration list that includes full names, dates of birth, addresses and either voters’ driver’s license numbers, last four digits of their Social Security numbers or their unique identifiers provided under the Help America Vote Act. The department first requested that information in May 2025, and then again in December when Griswold shared only publicly-available information.

The federal government claimed it wanted the information from Colorado and elsewhere to ensure compliance with federal election laws, and argued it had authority to request the information as a statutorily-defined record. Denver-based U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer wrote in his order, however, that the voter registration list is “not a record or paper that must be produced pursuant” to statute. Brimmer was nominated to the court by President George W. Bush.

None of the laws the federal government used to justify its request — the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act — require disclosure of the sensitive data. Brimmer’s decision follows the same logic as other recent decisions in similar cases out of states like Michigan and Arizona. The Trump administration appealed the Michigan decision, but lost in the appeals court.

The DOJ is unable to refile the claim against Colorado because Brimmer dismissed the case with prejudice.

The dismissal comes amid other efforts from the Trump administration to influence this year’s midterm elections. That includes successfully pressuring Republican-led states to redistrict congressional seats for the party’s advantage, proposing new U.S. Postal Service rules to limit mail-in ballots and attacking the integrity of mail ballots.