SALT LAKE CITY — In February 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Utah after Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson refused to comply with federal demands for un-redacted voter registration records. The lawsuit, filed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, alleged that Henderson’s refusal violated the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

The legal dispute followed a year-long audit of Utah’s voter rolls, which the state released in April 2025. The audit found that 99.72% of Utah’s more than 2 million registered voters are confirmed U.S. citizens. It identified 27 non-citizens who had registered to vote, of whom 13 had cast ballots. All 27 were removed from the rolls. An additional 25 probable non-citizens were given 30 days to provide proof of citizenship or face removal.

The review also flagged 5,007 voters whose citizenship could not be verified through existing state and federal databases. Many of these individuals registered decades ago, before Utah required driver’s license or Social Security numbers during registration. State law HB 209, passed in March 2025, now requires documentary proof of citizenship and limits unverified voters to federal-only ballots.

In July 2025, the Department of Justice’s civil rights division sent a letter to Henderson seeking voter registration records, citing concerns about Utah having the nation’s lowest voter removal rate. State officials countered that Utah’s actual removal rate between 2022 and 2024 was 5.4%, not the 0.08% calculated by federal officials based on incomplete county data. The Department issued a second request in August 2025 under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 for more detailed voter information. After Utah sought clarification, the Department returned three months later with a proposed agreement requiring the state to submit private voter data—including dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license numbers—within seven days.

Henderson refused to comply, stating, “I want to protect Utah voters’ data, and if I don’t have to send their records through a federal database, I’m not going to.” She told the Salt Lake Tribune that the audit demonstrated non-citizens were not voting in large numbers and that states are capable of managing their own voter rolls. Henderson added, “In this process we did find some areas that were useful that needed to be improved.” She noted ongoing system upgrades, including fixes to an online registration error that previously allowed ineligible applicants to attest to citizenship despite non-citizen driver’s license records.

Daniel Wade, Utah director of election systems, said of the 27 non-citizens who registered: “Those voters do need to be held accountable for this.” Penalties in Utah for falsely attesting citizenship during registration include prison time, fines, or loss of eligibility for naturalization.