21JUN

Judge Zeman keeps Alaska voter-list suit

2 min read

17:53UTC

An Alaska judge refused to dismiss a privacy suit over the state handing the Justice Department its unredacted voter list. The list carried licence numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

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Key takeaway

Alaska voters' privacy claims over the state's voter-list handover to DOJ will go to discovery.

Alaska Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman refused to dismiss a privacy suit over the Alaska Division of Elections giving the Justice Department (DOJ) its unredacted voter list, Alaska Public Media reported on 21 October⁠¹. The list, handed over in 2025, carried addresses, licence numbers and partial Social Security numbers. The League of Women Voters, the Alaska Black Caucus and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alaska brought the suit under the Alaska Constitution's privacy protections, and the claims now proceed to discovery.

The state had argued the plaintiffs lacked standing and the case was premature because DOJ has asked for no removals. Zeman wrote that the state "has given DOJ carte blanche to submit whenever it pleases"⁠². A memo signed by Division director Carol Beecher commits Alaska to remove voters within 45 days of a DOJ ineligibility finding, according to the report. A federal judge threw out DOJ's suit for Georgia's unredacted list last month.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Every state keeps a list of its registered voters. In 2025, Alaska gave the federal Justice Department its full list, including driving licence numbers and part of each voter's Social Security number. Voting and civil rights groups sued, saying this broke the privacy right in Alaska's constitution. The state asked the judge to dismiss the case. He refused, so the case continues and the groups can now gather evidence.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Alaska's Division of Elections chose to give DOJ the unredacted list in 2025, while many other states refused and were sued. The dispute is therefore between voters and their own state, not between the state and DOJ.

The Beecher memo turns a data handover into a removal process. It sets a 45-day deadline for acting on DOJ's findings and lets the data leave DOJ's control, which gives the plaintiffs a concrete risk to point to before any removal.

What could happen next?

Consequence
Discovery may force the state to disclose what DOJ has done with the Alaska list and who else holds it.
Precedent
Voters in other states that handed over full lists may bring similar suits under their own state constitutions.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: Alaska voters added an explicit right of privacy to the state constitution in 1972, and in Ravin v. State in 1975 the Alaska Supreme Court used it to protect conduct in the home that federal law did not. The clause gives Alaska courts a ground for this suit that federal courts lack.

Counter-parallel: Georgia won its fight with DOJ in federal court on a state privacy law: Judge Victoria Calvert held on 30 September that federal law does not override it. Alaska took the opposite path, handing the data over first, so its voters must now sue their own state.

Consensus view: The League of Women Voters, the Alaska Black Caucus and the ACLU of Alaska argue that the handover itself breached voters' privacy. Zeman let their claims under the Alaska Constitution go forward, writing that the state 'has given DOJ carte blanche to submit whenever it pleases'.

Counter-view: The state argued the plaintiffs lack standing and the case is unripe, because DOJ has asked for no removals. On that view no voter has yet been harmed, and a court has nothing to decide until the department acts.

Key tension: Whether the harm happens when the data leaves the state or only when a voter is removed. A memo signed by Division of Elections director Carol Beecher commits Alaska to remove voters within 45 days of a DOJ ineligibility finding and lets DOJ share the data with a private contractor.

Sources:Alaska Public Media

Mentions:Adolf Zeman →Alaska →Department of Justice →Alaska Division of Elections →League of Women Voters →ACLU →Alaska Supreme Court →Carol Beecher →Victoria Marie Calvert →Alaska Black Caucus →Georgia (U.S. state) →

First Reported In

Update #21 · Senate GOP's cash lead trails its $20m loan

Alaska Public Media· 22 Oct 2026

Read original →

Causes and effects

Caused by

Judge dismisses DOJ's Georgia voter suit

DOJ's demands for unredacted state voter lists drew privacy suits in Georgia and Alaska.

Occurred 30 Sept 2026

Read story →

This Event

Judge Zeman keeps Alaska voter-list suit

Alaska's handover of its full voter list to DOJ now faces discovery under the state constitution's privacy protections.

Different Perspectives

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Senate Leadership Fund (SLF)

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Richard Hudson, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee

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Department of Justice (DOJ)

DOJ lost before Judge David O. Carter on 28 October and a 9th Circuit panel on 30 October on its demand to set aside 20,000 California ballots, and says it will appeal the Alaska dismissal. No court has set a ballot aside.

Senator Dan S. Sullivan

Sullivan, who trails Mary Peltola 48.2% to 47.9% on first choices, told CNN he would accept the result. DOJ's suit to stop Alaska certifying anyone but him was dismissed on 1 November.

Scott Colom's campaign

Colom's campaign estimates that about 15,000 affidavit ballots remain to be counted in a race he leads by roughly 65 to 100 votes. Those ballots count only if voters confirm their ID or eligibility by 5pm on 10 November.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.