By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
August 22, 2025
Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales confirmed on Friday that his office has received a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice seeking access to voter rolls but indicated his team has not yet turned over any information.
“We’re reviewing the letter right now,” Morales said. “So based on what my general counsel and the rest of my team, my election director, based on what they say and based on what the law allows us to do, that’s what we will do.”
The Justice Department has been sending letters since at least May of this year to secretaries of state and election officials across the country requesting voter information. States have been hesitant to respond because of concerns about what the federal government will do with the data and whether the requests, themselves, are legal, according to Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization focused on elections and voting.
Julia Vaughn, executive director of Common Cause Indiana, said Morales should block federal officials from accessing Indiana’s voter data.
Vaughn pointed out that the Trump administration had tried a similar tactic in 2017 during his first term in the White House by creating the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Then-Vice President Mike Pence co-chaired the commission and former Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson was one of the commission members.
Trump eventually disbanded the group after many states refused to turn over voter information. Lawson was among the secretaries of state that rejected the request for access, saying that the personal data the commission was seeking was protected by Indiana state law.
“This sounds a lot like the effort during the previous Trump Administration to allow federal agencies access to the Indiana voter file,” Vaughn said of the latest round of letters from the DOJ. “Former SoS Connie Lawson was on the Commission that wanted those files and ended up resigning because she thought it was against the law for the federal government to access the information. I would hope that this Secretary of State would come to the same conclusion.”
Indiana’s letter from the DOJ was not available. However, Democracy Docket, a digital news platform covering voting rights, elections and the courts, has been tracking the letters sent to other states and has found that most of the states are being asked for their voter registration lists.
Some states, on the other hand, have received requests for different kinds of voter information. According to Democracy Docket, Colorado was asked for records related to the 2024 and 2020 elections; New York, New Hampshire and Nevada were asked multiple questions related to compliance with the Help America Vote Act of 2002; Alaska was told to provide the list of voter registrations that were canceled because the registrants were noncitizens; and Wisconsin was asked for its current voter registration list with both active and inactive voters, the process for identifying and removing noncitizen registrants from the voter rolls and its procedures for voter list maintenance.
This month, the Justice Department has increased the pressure on states to comply by threatening some, including California, Illinois and Pennsylvania, with legal action, according to Democracy Docket.
David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research, speaking about the Justice Department’s letters in general, told Stateline, “The DOJ seems dead set on acquiring personal information on voters, including driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers and dates of birth – records that are highly protected under federal law and under state law and which state election officials are sworn to protect.”
Morales said the DOJ letter is asking for Indiana’s voter rolls. The secretary of state’s general counsel, he said, is reviewing the legalities of what information the state can provide. Then it will reply to the Trump administration.
“We have the letter and we are reviewing that letter right now with my general counsel and my team in the secretary of state’s office,” Morales said. “After reviewing the letter, we will get back to, obviously, (the administration). So, we are in the process of reviewing the letter.”
MADVoters Indiana scolded Morales for not outright denying access to the DOJ.
“The Constitution is very clear – it is the state that administers and oversees elections, not the federal government,” MADVoters Indiana told The Indiana Citizen in an email. “Secretary of State Morales is Indiana’s chief elections officer, not (President) Donald Trump – he should start acting like it. His job requires him to safeguard voter access and privacy, not capitulate to federal overreach from the Trump administration.”
Morales spoke about the DOJ letter during a news conference on Friday, following a public meeting his office held in Muncie on Indiana election law. The secretary of state is required under House Enrolled Act 1633, passed and signed into law earlier this year, to study and hold three public hearings before November on the potential impact of moving municipal elections to even-numbered years and requiring all counties have vote centers on Election Day.
“One of my goals as the first Latino Secretary of State in Indiana is to increase voter turnout and voter participation,” Morales said, adding that his office has been present at county fairs, festivals, parades and college campuses in Indiana registering voters. “I want as many eligible Hoosiers to be part of the, obviously, election process and we will continue to do that.”
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
