Markey Joins Padilla, Beatty in Introducing Legislation to Stop Trump Administration from Purging Voter Rolls

Washington (October 9, 2025) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today joined Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California's former Secretary of State, and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio-03) in announcing the introduction of new bicameral legislation aimed at preventing the Trump Administration's ongoing efforts to purge state voter rolls and restrict the right to vote across the country. The Voter Purge Protection Act comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently filed lawsuits against eight states, including California, for their refusal to hand over unfettered access to their state's sensitive voter information and registration lists to the federal government. Democracy Forward and a coalition of public interest organizations recently sued the Trump Administration for its efforts to create massive government databases to purge voter rolls.

The Voter Purge Protection Act would update the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to prohibit the removal of individuals from the voter rolls due to changes in residence or not voting in previous elections, unless supported by objective and reliable evidence that the voter has died or moved out of the state, among other protections for registered voters and states administering elections. The NVRA requires states to conduct ineligible voter removal programs, but it bans states from removing voters without notice solely for their failure to vote. However, at least 19 states have removal processes that target inactive voters that could result in their removal for not voting in two consecutive general elections.

"This year, we've seen what appears to be an attempt at a federal takeover of our elections through Executive Order and through actions by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice. The Voter Purge Protection Act gives critical protections to Americans to ensure they are not stripped of their right to vote," said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon.

"Democracy is built on the idea that all eligible voters should be allowed to choose the direction of their communities and our country by exercising their right to vote. However, anti-democratic forces are working to undermine this core principle by making it easier to erroneously purge the voter rolls and deny eligible voters their ability to exercise that right. This effort is not new, but what is new and bringing urgency to this issue is the extent to which the Executive Branch and the President himself is complicit and facilitating these efforts," said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. "Attempts to consolidate the American people's private information and remove eligible voters from voter rolls are unlawful. Our promise to the American people is that we will be in court every day to stop these abuses of power."

Since July, DOJ has sent letters to at least 36 states inquiring about state voter maintenance practices in addition to their lawsuits against California, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, and Pennsylvania after these states refused to provide voter lists to DOJ.

Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has dramatically expanded its use of the insufficiently tested Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program, which could be used by the Administration as a basis to coerce states into purging eligible citizens from state voter rolls. DHS overhauled the SAVE Program to verify the citizenship of voters on state voter rolls in response to false, unsubstantiated concerns of rampant noncitizen voting. However, the Administration's political agenda and data quality issues could lead to the erroneous disenfranchisement of eligible voters. DHS has already run over 33 million voters' information through their SAVE Program with little to no transparency, further raising the alarm on potential future voting list purges.

To combat the threat of incorrect mass removal of eligible citizens from voter rolls, the Voter Purge Protection Act would:

• Amend the NVRA to prohibit states from removing registered voters from voting rolls unless the state has obtained objective and reliable evidence that a person is ineligible to vote. The legislation would clarify that failure to vote or respond to election mail would not constitute objective and reliable evidence of a voter's ineligibility to vote;

• Allow election officials to use state records to remove voters who have died or permanently moved out of the state;

• Require election officials to send a notice explaining the grounds for removal within 48 hours of removing voters from the rolls and provide public notice within 48 hours after any general program to remove voters; and

• Revise the voting procedure for a voter who failed to report a change of address by allowing a voter who moved within a state to vote at the polling place of the voter's current address or at a central location in the jurisdiction of the local voter registration office.

The Voter Purge Protection Act is cosponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

A one-pager on the bill is available here.

Full text of the bill is available here.

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