A voter purge is the systematic removal of individuals from a state's voter registration list. Federal law — including the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act — sets procedures states must follow before removing voters, including advance notice and the right to contest removal. Critics argue aggressive purges conducted close to elections and based on unreliable data disproportionately remove eligible voters, particularly in communities of color. The Trump DOJ's 2025–2026 campaign to obtain unredacted state voter data — including Social Security numbers — is widely described by voting rights advocates as infrastructure for a coordinated national purge effort.