Texas officials say voter roll reviews are necessary to protect election integrity, while civil rights advocates argue the process risks disenfranchising eligible voters, especially naturalized citizens. Credit: Getty Images

Texas’ decision to turn over its full voter registration list to the U.S. Department of Justice is now facing legal challenges, as a new federal lawsuit challenges the accuracy of the data driving voter roll reviews.

The state sent information on nearly 18.4 million voters registered in Texas to the DOJ on Dec. 23, 2025. Last fall, the department asked all 50 states for their voter rolls last year to turn in their voter rolls to “maintain” its lists and remove ineligible voters.

Now, civil rights groups are pushing back against the measure.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court, organizations including the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Texas LULAC, LULAC Council, and Common Cause allege Texas has implemented a voter purge program that relies on “data sources that are known to be stale, unreliable, and incomplete.”

Before the lawsuit

Last October, Texas Secretary of State (SOS) Jane Nelson announced that her office compared the state’s voter registration list against citizenship data in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ SAVE database. 

Nelson’s office found that 2,724 “potential noncitizens” are registered to vote in Texas.

“Only eligible United States citizens may participate in our elections,” Secretary Nelson said. “The Trump Administration’s decision to give states free and direct access to this data set for the first time has been a game changer, and we appreciate the partnership with the federal government to verify the citizenship of those on our voter rolls and maintain accurate voter lists.”

Those voters will now be investigated by the state as “ part of their statutory responsibilities to remove ineligible voters from the rolls,” under Chapter 16 of the Texas Election Code. 

In Harris County, 362 such individuals have been identified, per SOS records.

Those deemed noncitizens who voted in a Texas election will then be referred to the Office of the Attorney General.

Federal officials have framed the effort as routine oversight.

“Clean voter rolls and basic election safeguards are requisites for free, fair, and transparent elections,” Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the justice department’s civil rights division, said in a statement. “The DoJ civil rights division has a statutory mandate to enforce our federal voting rights laws, and ensuring the voting public’s confidence in the integrity of our elections is a top priority of this administration.”

Texas also established an interstate voter registration crosscheck program with nine states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

 

Nelson called it “a significant step in our ongoing commitment to maintain accurate voter registration lists and upholding the integrity of our elections.” 

The office added that the agreements will enhance election security by letting states identify “any instances of duplicate registrations or potential voter fraud identified through this process are shared with appropriate authorities for further investigation.”

The lawsuit

“The State of Texas has undertaken a troubling voter purge program that relies on unvetted, outdated citizenship data to remove voters from rolls in ways that are discriminatory and non-uniform across counties,” the lawsuit states, warning that the system disproportionately targets naturalized citizens.

“The State of Texas has undertaken a troubling voter purge program that relies on unvetted, outdated citizenship data to remove voters from rolls in ways that are discriminatory and non-uniform across counties.”

Lawsuit filed by LULAC and other organizations

The lawsuit claims the state’s process has flagged non-U .S. born citizens as noncitizens and forced some to prove their citizenship to remain registered, a measure not imposed on U.S.-born voters.

That allegation also asks whether efforts framed as election security are instead creating new risks for lawful voters.

According to the complaint, Texas used the federal database known as SAVE, originally created in 1987, to verify eligibility for government benefits.Now, it is being used to compare citizenship data against the state’s voter rolls, the lawsuit added, arguing that the system is not built for that purpose and produces unreliable results.

Texas voter rolls 

The legal challenge also points to Texas’ history with voter roll reviews.

In 2019, the state attempted a similar effort using driver’s license data, flagging tens of thousands of voters as potential noncitizens. That program was later abandoned after errors were discovered and a legal settlement was reached.

“The 2019 purge lists were generated using only outdated DPS data, resulting in the erroneous inclusion of tens of thousands of properly registered U.S.-citizens on the purge lists distributed to counties,” the lawsuit claimed.

Plaintiffs argue the current effort repeats those same mistakes, this time on a larger scale and with federal involvement.

Debate over the matter

The clash reflects a broader national divide over voting rights and election oversight.

Gov. Greg Abbott defended the voter roll review, calling it a lawful effort to ensure only U.S. citizens vote in Texas elections. Credit: Getty Images

“So called “voting rights” groups are suing Texas to stop verifying that only U.S. citizens are on our voter rolls,” Gov. Greg Abbott wrote on X. “Let that sink in. Only U.S. citizens can vote in Texas. That’s not controversial — it’s the law. We will fight this lawsuit and we will win.”

Organizations like the Congressional Black Caucus are refuting this claim.

“Right now, Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are deploying every tactic imaginable to suppress the power of the people in a desperate effort to maintain control in Washington,” the organization said in a statement. “The executive order signed by President Trump is an unlawful and unconstitutional attempt to dictate who in this country is allowed to vote. This sweeping order would allow the Trump Administration to unilaterally determine voter eligibility, intimidate state election officials through politically motivated investigations, and jeopardize the privacy of millions of law-abiding Americans. It would also disenfranchise Black and other minority voters, women, young people, individuals with disabilities, and older Americans.”

I cover education, housing, and politics in Houston for the Houston Defender Network as a Report for America corps member. I graduated with a master of science in journalism from the University of Southern...