December 31, 2025

Donald Trump and the Republican Party know that they are likely to be voted out of power in November 2026. The tools they are counting on to prevent this are the same ones being deployed by the largest technology companies: big data sets and vast computing power.

Those of us in the pro-democracy movement must take these threats seriously and be prepared to combat them. Unlike in past years, we are not only up against the GOP and its right-wing allies, but the Department of Justice as well. Their collective goal is to use data to make it harder for you to vote and easier for them to cheat next November.

Anyone familiar with my writing knows that I have a history of sounding early alarms about threats to free and fair elections. In March 2020, I wrote about how mail-in voting laws needed reform to prevent mass disenfranchisement. In 2022, I warned about the effects of new voter suppression laws and the rise of right-wing, anti-voting vigilante organizations. In 2024, I cautioned about Donald Trump’s efforts to prepare to contest election certification if he lost.

My 2020 and 2022 predictions proved prescient. Only a Trump victory in 2024 spared us from the election subversion he and the GOP were planning.

It is already crystal clear where the greatest threat lies for the midterm elections. The big data and increased computing power that enable artificial intelligence are emboldening Republicans to deploy more sophisticated techniques to make it harder for you to vote and easier for them to cheat next November.

We have already seen the fruits of these efforts in the mid-cycle gerrymandering war started by Trump last summer. When Texas gerrymandered its maps to create five additional Republican seats, it did not start from a fair baseline. The prior map, drawn in 2021, was itself a GOP gerrymander. What allowed Trump to squeeze out five more seats was advances in technology.

In 2016, a Republican state senator in North Carolina famously said, “I propose that we draw the maps to give a partisan advantage to 10 Republicans and three Democrats, because I do not believe it’s possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats.” Less than a decade later, North Carolina Republicans drew a congressional map they expect will yield 11 Republicans and only two Democrats.

The use of technology and big data is not limited to drawing congressional districts. It applies equally to the voting rules states adopt and the voter suppression and election subversion programs Republicans run.

In 2013, North Carolina Republicans enacted new voting laws that, in the words of the Court of Appeals, “target[ed] African Americans with almost surgical precision.” They did this after requesting racial data on the effects of various provisions of the law. Imagine how much more surgical those laws can be today, with improved data collection and computing power capable of targeting specific types of voters.

The widespread availability of high-powered computers poses no barrier to these efforts. The GOP and its outside allies have spent years collecting data to make disenfranchisement more effective. But even that is not enough for Trump to rely upon to hold power after the 2026 elections.

Instead, his Department of Justice is aiming at something bigger and potentially far more impactful. The DOJ is seeking full, unredacted voter records on every single voter in the country.

Each state maintains complete records for every registered voter. These records include a voter’s name, date of birth, and Social Security number, as well as a specimen of their signature. They also contain information about party registration, which elections the voter participated in or skipped, whether the voter cast a ballot by mail, in person, or early, and whether any of their ballots were contested or rejected.

Although political parties and other groups can access portions of this data, the DOJ has never before sought to collect it for its own purposes. Now, Pam Bondi’s DOJ wants all of it.

Several Republican-controlled states have willingly handed it over. The DOJ has sued more than twenty states — all blue or purple — that have refused. How these cases progress in court may determine whether the DOJ is allowed to enter the partisan fray of targeting voters for disenfranchisement.

I have fought and defeated past Republican efforts to weaponize this type of data. Each election cycle, those efforts grow in scope and sophistication. We have been able to beat them because the GOP and its allies ultimately face skeptical election officials and courts.

Most recently, a Republican candidate in North Carolina attempted to use targeted challenges to overturn the results of a state Supreme Court election. A federal judge halted that effort.

The Department of Justice joining these efforts would be a game changer. It has near-unlimited resources, the FBI, and criminal investigatory power. The last year has shown that it still enjoys a presumption of good faith and regularity, even when it is acting transparently in bad faith and for partisan aims.

Defeating a DOJ-led effort to disenfranchise voters or overturn an election would be far more challenging than combating right-wing vote suppressors or defeating private lawsuits. The prospect of the federal government weaponizing this data is daunting.

That does not mean we would not fight — or win. But the best way to secure free and fair elections in 2026 is to deny the DOJ access to the data it seeks. That is why my law firm is currently representing individuals and entities in every single case brought by the DOJ to access this data.

The legal battles over access to state voter files will likely define the litigation landscape for the next year. My request is simple: pay attention and spread awareness that these fights are happening. The legacy media will not save us. We cannot let democracy die in the darkness they have created.