U.S. DOJ & AG Pamela Bondi Seek Virginia Voter List, Other Voter Information
Records released in response to a FOIA request reveal the sweeping request from the U.S. Department of Justice to Virginia's Department of Elections.
According to a July 15, 2025 letter from representatives of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice to Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Susan Beals, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi has requested Virginia’s “statewide voter registration list” for inspection.
The U.S. DOJ, according to records released today under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, first reached out to the Virginia Secretary of the Commonwealth Kelly Gee in June as part of “the implementation of Presidential Executive Order (EO) 14248, Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.” That communication was ultimately forwarded to Beals at the Virginia Department of Elections for further coordination and action.
The FOIA Request
On July 29, 2025, I sent a FOIA request to the Virginia Department of Elections seeking “any and all communications from any representative or employee of the United States Department of Justice” from January 1, 2025 until that day.
This afternoon, I received the following response via email from the Department of Elections with five files attached:
“Thank you for your request under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Attached are partially responsive records. Pursuant to § 2.2-3705.7(2), two records are being withheld.”
You can download the released records here:
Two records in particular help us understand the history and details of this request from the U.S. DOJ.
Executive Order Implementation.pdf
This record contains June 2025 email correspondence from U.S. DOJ Senior Counsels Paul Hayden and Scott Laragy to Secretary Gee and reads in pertinent part:
By way of virtual introduction, we are Paul Hayden and Scott Laragy from the U.S. Department of Justice. We are reaching out to you regarding the implementation of Presidential Executive Order (EO) 14248, Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections. Pursuant to the EO, we would like to request a call with you, or the relevant election official in your office, to discuss information sharing as it relates to the EO.
The record also contains Beals’ communications with these DOJ representatives:
Your email to Virginia’s Secretary of the Commonwealth Kelly Gee found its way to me. My name is Susan Beals and I am the chief election official for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Please let me know how I can be of assistance.
Commonwealth of Virginia.pdf
This July 15, 2025 letter from representatives of the U.S. DOJ’s Civil Rights Division to Beals is the most sweeping and concerning record released today. While I don’t know what information the Virginia Department of Elections has since transmitted to the DOJ, the DOJ clearly wanted the statewide voter registration list and had plenty of questions for Beals.
Other July emails released today further suggest file sharing activity may have already occurred.
As I try to learn more about this situation (and about the two records being totally withheld), I’ll leave you with the text and images of the letter:
The Honorable Susan Beals
Commissioner, Virginia Department of Elections
1100 Bank Street, First Floor
Richmond, Virginia 23219
susan.beals@elections.virginia.govDear Commissioner Beals:
We write to you as the chief election official for the Commonwealth of Virginia to request information regarding Virginia’s procedures for complying with the statewide voter registration list maintenance provisions of the National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”), 52 U.S.C. § 20501 et seq.
Please provide a list of the election officials who are responsible for implementing Virginia’s general program of voter registration list maintenance from November 2022 through receipt of this letter, including those responsible officials not employed by your office (such as local election officials) who are also involved in that effort. Please also provide a description of the steps that you have taken, and when those steps were taken, to ensure that the Commonwealth’s list maintenance program has been properly carried out in full compliance with the NVRA.
The NVRA requires each state and the District of Columbia to make available for inspection “all records concerning the implementation of programs and activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters.” 52 U.S.C. §20507(i)(1). Section 11 of the NVRA authorizes the Attorney General to bring NVRA enforcement actions. See 52 U.S.C. § 20510.
Pursuant to Section 20507(i) of the NVRA, the Attorney General requests that you produce for inspection the following records:
The current electronic copy of Virginia’s computerized statewide voter registration list (“statewide voter registration list”) as required by Section 303(a) of the Help America Vote Act. Please include all fields contained within the list. Please produce each list in a .xls, .csv, or delimited-text file format. Please specify what delimiter is used, if applicable, or provide a file layout along with a database user manual, coding list, or other materials that define or explain how a voter record is coded into the statewide voter registration list and reported in the electronic copy of the statewide voter registration list.
Additionally, please provide the following information in electronic form. The time period for these requests is close of registration for the November 2022 general election through the close of registration for the November 2024 general election, the same time period as the most recent report from the Election Assistance Commission’s Election Administration and Voting Survey (“EAVS”). If you are unable to provide the data, please explain why the data is not available.
A review of the most recent report from EAVS report indicates that in response to Question A1b, there are nearly as many registered voters listed as active as the citizen voting age population in Virginia, with a registration rate in 2024 of 92.2 percent of the citizen voting age population. Please explain what actions Virginia is taking to ensure that voters who should not be on the voter roll are being removed.
In the EAVS data for Question A3d, Virginia had 1,074,543 voters (33.2 percent) with duplicate registrations, almost three times as high as the nationwide average of 12.7 percent. In response to the same question for the 2022 EAVS Report, Virginia had 1,226,754 duplicate registrations (36.3 percent). Please explain why duplicate registrations are such a high percentage of the total registration applications received. Please explain what actions Virginia is taking to identify duplicate registrations and to remove those duplicates from the voter registration list.
In the EAVS data for Question A10a, Virginia sent 521,339 confirmation notices, which is 8.8 percent of all active registered voters and well below the national average of 19.5 percent. Please explain why Virginia sent confirmation notices to so few registered voters.
In the EAVS data for Question A12b, Virginia had 536,460 voters (68.4 percent) removed because they moved out of the commonwealth, which was twice as high as the national average. Please explain how Virginia identifies voters who have moved out of the commonwealth and determines their removal from the voter registration list.
In the EAVS data for Question A12e, Virginia had 61,151 voters (7.8 percent) removed due to failure to respond to confirmation notices and did not vote in the two most recent federal elections, which was well below the national average. Based on the responses to Question A10f, 415,181 (79.6 percent) of the confirmation notices were unreturned. Please explain why so few voters are being removed in Question A12e. Please provide a list of all registrations that were cancelled because of failure to respond to confirmation notices and did not vote in the two most recent federal election cycles.
No data was listed in the EAVS survey for Question A12h for Virginia regarding duplicate registrants who were removed from the statewide voter registration database. Please provide a list of all duplicate registrants who were removed from the statewide voter registration list. If they were merged or linked with another record, please provide that information.
Please provide a description of the steps that Virginia has taken, and when those steps were taken, to identify registered voters who are ineligible to vote as well as the procedures the commonwealth used to remove those ineligible voters from the registration list. Please identify the number of registered voters identified as ineligible to vote for the time period of the close of registration for the November 2022 general election through present for each of the following reasons:
Non-citizen
Adjudicated incompetent
Felony conviction
For each of those voters identified in categories 1-3 above, provide their registration information on the statewide voter registration list, including their vote history.
Please provide this information within 14 days of the date of this letter. The information and materials may be sent by encrypted email to voting.section@usdoj.gov or via the Department’s secure file-sharing system, Justice Enterprise File Sharing (JEFS).
Should further clarification be required, please contact Maureen Riordan at maureen.riordan2@usdoj.gov. We look forward to your assistance in advance.
Sincerely,
Michael E. Gates
Deputy Assistant Attorney General
Civil Rights DivisionMaureen Riordan
Acting Chief, Voting Section
Civil Rights Division
