Watchdog Sues DOJ for Records on Federal Use of Error-Prone Voter Purge Tool ELLY

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, American Oversight filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking records that could shed light on whether federal officials have communicated with, evaluated, or entered into agreements involving ELLY or EagleAI — voter purge tools developed by Dr. John W. “Rick” Richards, Jr. that election officials and experts have criticized for relying on error-prone data. The lawsuit comes just days before the midterm elections, as Richards promotes his software’s ability to track early and absentee ballots — raising concerns that it could be used to challenge votes already being cast.

Earlier this month, Richards appeared on a far-right podcast alongside Jerome Corsi, a conservative activist who wrote a discredited book advancing the Obama “birther” conspiracy. During the interview, Corsi indicated that ELLY had “already been given to the Department of Homeland Security and DOJ, and they are using the tool” — statements Richards did not dispute. Richards has reportedly met with DOJ officials before. Department leaders — including Maureen Riordan, then-acting chief of the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section — reportedly met with Richards in 2025 to view a demonstration of EagleAI, ELLY’s predecessor. It is unclear if the Department of Homeland Security relied on the tool as the basis for its unsubstantiated claim last July that 250,000 noncitizens had registered to vote across four states.

“Americans deserve to know whether the Justice Department — the agency charged with enforcing federal voting rights laws — is relying on a tool that election officials have found threatens voting rights by producing inaccurate results. ELLY and its predecessor, EagleAI, are built on unreliable data and flawed matching that wrongly flag eligible Americans as suspicious,” said Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight. “With the midterms days away, the public should not have to wait any longer for answers about whether federal officials are lending legitimacy to tools that put eligible voters at risk of improper scrutiny, removal from the rolls, and challenges to ballots already cast in this election.”

Tools like EagleAI and ELLY aggregate personal information and run name-based matching to flag voter registrations as potentially “suspicious,” then allow private citizens to auto-populate and submit voter registration challenges in bulk. Election officials who have examined the results have documented serious problems. In 2024, the Georgia’s Cobb County Elections Board dismissed 99.84 percent of EagleAI-based challenges, citing data errors. This summer, the elections director in Georgia’s Cherokee County tested ELLY against official records and concluded that “[t]he voting history data in ELLY is consistently incorrect.” And according to an August 2026 analysis by the Campaign Legal Center, EagleAI has “rebranded” as ELLY and Psephos and “continues to fuel error-prone voter challenges.”

Despite those concerns, the tools have continued to reach election offices. Records previously obtained by American Oversight show that ELLY and Psephos have been promoted to election officials in numerous states. In July, reports indicated that the Georgia State Election Board was promoting ELLY to counties ahead of the midterms.

The concerns now extend beyond voter registrations to ballots themselves. In an Oct. 20 interview, Richards said his system tracks “every absentee ballot from the time it’s requested” and “every early and election day vote from the day it’s cast,” while Corsi said candidates could use it to obtain “a list of potentially illegal ballots.” In a follow-up interview, Richards said the software can “grab the absentee information nightly from the states.” In a later appearance, he offered to send county clerks reports “before they certify the elections.” With millions of Americans already voting early and by mail, those claims raise the prospect that the same error-prone matching that has wrongly flagged eligible voters could be used to cast doubt on ballots already cast and on the certification of results.

The lawsuit seeks to compel DOJ to produce records from its Civil Rights Division, which is charged with enforcing federal voting rights laws. American Oversight is seeking emails, text messages, and messaging-app communications between senior division officials — including Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Andrew “Mac” Warner, and Riordan — and Richards, EagleAI, or any entity offering ELLY; emails sent by those officials that mention ELLY, EagleAI, or Richards; and any contracts, memoranda of understanding, or other agreements between the division and Richards, EagleAI, or ELLY’s providers. American Oversight submitted the requests on Jan. 14, 2026. DOJ acknowledged receiving them on Feb. 12 and claimed a 10-day extension to respond, but has issued no determination and produced no records since.

Today’s lawsuit is part of American Oversight’s ongoing efforts to bring greater transparency to the individuals and entities aiming to undermine confidence in American elections. In March 2024, the nonpartisan watchdog and the Campaign Legal Center sent a letter to Georgia officials regarding a potential violation of state law in Columbia County’s agreement with EagleAI. Later that year, American Oversight obtained recordings from Cleta Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network meetings — a national coalition that has played a central role in organizing election denial efforts and promoting mass voter challenges — which demonstrated both the close ties between Richards and the network and the significant deficiencies of EagleAI.