Utah's Republican lieutenant governor, Deidre Henderson, who oversees the state's elections, says the biggest threat to those elections no longer comes from outside the country. "In the past two elections that I oversaw as lieutenant governor, the threats were all external," she told CBS News' 60 Minutes. "But now we also have threats coming from within our own government."
Source: CBS News — 60 Minutes
Henderson is at the centre of a legal fight between the U.S. Department of Justice and roughly 30 states over the federal government's demand for complete, unredacted statewide voter registration lists — records that include Social Security numbers, full dates of birth and driver's licence numbers, which state law normally requires officials to keep private.
She refused. Then came a lawsuit — and an investigation notice
Henderson refused to hand over the unredacted list and provided only the publicly available, redacted version. The Justice Department sued her in February 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah — United States v. Henderson — arguing that federal law, including Title III of the Civil Rights Act, gives it the right to the records to check that states are maintaining accurate voter rolls and removing ineligible voters.
Last month, the department went further, notifying Henderson in writing that she is "under investigation" and reminding her to preserve all 2024 election records, according to a letter obtained by the Associated Press. Eric Neff, acting chief of the Civil Rights Division's Voting Section, warned that failure to preserve relevant data could bring civil and criminal sanctions. Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Civil Rights Division, said the letters are standard litigation practice, "not a 'threat'."
Henderson: the data is private by law and the department gave 'not very good answers' about why it needs it. DOJ: it needs the full rolls to verify voter eligibility and keep lists accurate under the HAVA and NVRA laws.
"Someone has to" hold the line
"I have to tell myself it doesn't matter what the consequences are, as long as I feel like I'm doing what's right," Henderson told CBS. "I think this is an important thing for me to do, holding these guard rails, holding the line. Someone has to." Asked about a warning that she could face prosecution if she knowingly allowed noncitizens to vote, she answered: "We're not going to prison. No. It's silly."
Utah is not alone: officials in about 30 states, Democratic- and Republican-led, refused the same demand, and the Justice Department has sued 30 states plus Washington, D.C. The League of Women Voters of Utah and the ACLU have intervened in the Utah case in support of the state's position, arguing the federal demand could lead to voter purges, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. The case is ongoing, and its outcome will shape how much personal voter data states must hand to Washington.