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Judge Zeman keeps Alaska voter-list suit

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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

Judge Adolf Zeman, Alaska Superior Court

Zeman refused to dismiss the League of Women Voters, Alaska Black Caucus and ACLU of Alaska suit over the state giving DOJ its unredacted voter list. The privacy claims now go to evidence-gathering under the Alaska Constitution.

Judge Thomas Schroeder, US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina

Schroeder refused on 19 October to block the State Board of Elections rule that rejects mail ballots with an unsealed or missing inner envelope. He found the challengers had delayed and that relief was infeasible with voting under way, and pointed to notice-and-cure provisions as a safeguard.

Stephen Richer, Republican former Maricopa County recorder

Richer submitted a brief on 20 October supporting the voting groups on documentary proof of citizenship at registration. He takes no position on the separate 90-day voter-removal question.

Senate Leadership Fund

The Senate Leadership Fund began spending for interim Senator Darline Graham Nordone on 19 October, taking its South Carolina total to $4.06m, including $2.25m against Democrat Annie Andrews. Republicans are now paying to defend a seat in a state Donald Trump carried in 2024.

WinSenate, the ad-buying affiliate of Senate Majority PAC

WinSenate began buying Kansas airtime against Roger Marshall on 10 October and had reported $8.14m there by 20 October. Marshall held $922,088 in cash on 30 September and the NRSC gave him no party money in September, so the Democratic side is spending where the Republican committee has not.

County Board of Arlington County

Arlington says federal Polling Place Policies allowing armed agents at polling sites breach 18 USC 592, the 1865 ban on troops or armed men at an election. It reads Markwayne Mullin's 1 September remarks as confirming such a policy, and asks Judge Brinkema to keep armed federal staff from its polls and drop boxes.

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