(WKYT) – The ACLU of Kentucky filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit against the commonwealth’s secretary of state in an effort to protect private voter data.
In a news release, the ACLU of Kentucky said they, along with the ACLU Voting Rights Project, represented The League of Women Voters of Kentucky, the New Americans Initiative and two individual Kentucky voters.
The motion, filed Monday, March 9, comes after the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams.
The lawsuit was filed after Adams refused to turn over the state’s voter registration list after the DOJ asked for information such as voters’ full names, dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers or partial social security numbers in July 2025.
“The Trump administration’s efforts to invasively access the sensitive data of voters is a serious threat to our democracy,” Adriel I. Cepeda Derieux, deputy director for the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in the news release. “When voters fear their personal information could be misused to target or disadvantage them, it chills civic engagement. We will challenge this overreach again and again.”
The ACLU of Kentucky pointed to concerns about illegally targeting and challenging voters, saying the DOJ’s effort puts certain groups at risk, including naturalized citizens and voters with prior felony convictions whose current eligibility status may not be updated in databases that have out-of-date information.
Monday’s motion also cites reports that indicate the DOJ intends to create “an unauthorized and unlawful” national voter database that could potentially be shared with other federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, according to the news release.
The full news release can be found on the ACLU of Kentucky’s website.