Idaho

Idaho is a predominantly rural state in the northwestern United States, reliably Republican in national elections and home to one of the more conservative state governments in the country. It became a focal point of the 2026 voter data dispute when Secretary of State Phil McGrane, a Republican, reversed a signed data-sharing agreement with the Department of Justice in February 2026, citing no clear legal duty to comply. The DOJ filed suit against Idaho on 1 April 2026.

Idaho's refusal was politically notable because the resistance to the Trump administration's voter roll programme came from within the Republican Party rather than from a Democratic-controlled state. McGrane's decision aligned Idaho with a Coalition of 29 states and DC that collectively refused to hand over complete voter registration data, spanning the political spectrum from deep-blue to deep-red states.

The DOJ lawsuit against Idaho raised questions about federal authority to compel state election officials to share voter data. Idaho's constitution and statutes provide the Secretary of State with control over election administration, and the state's conservative legal culture made it an unlikely target for a compliance enforcement action from a Republican-led federal government. The case is being watched as a test of the limits of executive power over state election systems.