26JUL

Judge Zeman keeps Alaska voter-list suit

2 min read

10:41UTC

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

Department of Justice (DOJ)

DOJ appealed to the 9th Circuit after Judge David O. Carter did not rule by a noon deadline on 22 October that DOJ itself had set, seeking to have California set aside mail ballots from more than 20,000 listed voters. Its case is that ineligible votes cancel lawful ones; the panel dismissed the appeal 2-1 on 26 October.

Lower Costs Now

Lower Costs Now reported $7.37m in Kansas on 24 and 25 October, part of $65.65m in Senate races since its first independent expenditure on 1 October, including $17.21m for Josh Turek in Iowa. Its FEC filings show $50.18m raised by 14 October.

MAGA Inc

MAGA Inc, the super PAC aligned with Donald Trump, filed $7.20m against James Talarico on 22 October, taking its Texas spending to $37.65m. Of that, $30.12m is against Talarico and $7.53m is for Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee.

Senate Majority PAC (SMP)

SMP's pre-general report shows it spent $108.70m from 1 to 14 October, including $65.0m to WinSenate and $10.0m to Texas Forever, and ended with $32.72m. Texas Forever has reported $19.40m against Ken Paxton since 1 October.

Senate Leadership Fund (SLF)

SLF's pre-general report shows $88.42m in cash on 14 October and $18.98m raised in the fortnight, none of it from Elon Musk. It has since reported $12.07m against Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and its $2.7m to Plains PAC preceded that committee's first Kansas buy on 25 October.

National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC)

The NRSC's pre-general report shows nothing spent with Ashley Hinson in Iowa, or with its nominees in six other states, from 1 to 14 October, after $5.54m with Hinson in September. It took no new loan and ended the fortnight with $25.20m in cash and $20m of debt.

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