Secretary Tobias Read Discusses DOJ Dismissal, Oregon Voter Data in Eugene

A federal judge dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit seeking unredacted Oregon voter data, and Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read used a League of Women Voters event in Eugene to explain the ruling and reassure the public about voter privacy and election continuity. Read addressed roughly 200 attendees at The Shedd Institute and framed the decision as protection for Oregonians' privacy and the rule of law.

U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai officially dismissed the case, and Read said a written opinion is forthcoming. The Justice Department had sought personally identifiable information about voters, including addresses, dates of birth and driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of Social Security numbers. Accounts of federal activity vary: the Justice Department asked at least two dozen states for voter registration rolls, while other filings and reports reference similar suits against 22 other states and Washington, D.C.

Read recounted Oregon’s response to the request. He said Oregon refused to hand over private voter data and sought dismissal of the suit late last year. Read described how the state handles inactive registrations and confirmed that "about 160,000 of those records qualify right now for cancelation so we're moving forward with that." He acknowledged restarting the purge process would draw scrutiny, saying, "When we restarted this process, I knew there were going to be bad actors out there who were going to try to spin it to justify their unproven claims of fraud, and sure enough, that is exactly what's happening."

Read went on the offensive against the federal order that prompted the litigation, releasing a statement that read, "The Trump administration attacked American elections with an illegal executive order. Today, we put a stop to that nonsense. This is a win for the Constitution and the American people. Presidents don't get to rig elections. Period." He also framed his refusal to hand over data as a matter of trust and security: "This is exactly why I refused to give up Oregonians private voter data: because we can’t trust how it will be used by this lawless, cruel administration. I’m deeply concerned that they are hiding the truth from the American people, they are not properly securing this data, and they’ll use it to keep tearing families and communities apart."

Beyond the courtroom victory, Read warned of broader threats to federal election support. He said cuts to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have lawmakers and election officials on edge, and that "the federal government is walking away from real election security." Read said his office remains in regular communication with the state legislature and Lane County clerks and that Oregon is monitoring automatic voter registration at DMVs to prevent erroneous enrollments.

Read urged the audience to remain engaged and to resist cynicism, telling listeners, "Every time we remind people of the history, every time we talk about how central this is to our democracy, we build the narrative. We build the resilience. We build the expectation." For Lane County voters, the immediate implications are practical: the state will proceed with cleaning inactive rolls, county clerks will coordinate on safeguards, and residents should expect continued elections, including the midterms and the 2028 cycle. The next steps to watch are the judge’s written opinion, whether the federal government appeals, and any further disclosures about how federal agencies handled requests for state voter data.