Unite4Freedom has sent a Notice of Evidence Preservation Obligations to 35 state Governors, Attorneys General, and Secretaries of State. These letters were sent out between September 2 and 3, in advance of the expiration of the 22-month record retention requirement for 2024 general election records, and are connected to the Notice of Violations regarding compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), 52 U.S.C. § 20501, that have been transmitted to 30 states.

The letters sent by Unite4Freedom are a formal demand that the states immediately take all steps necessary to identify, preserve, and protect from destruction, alteration, or loss any and all records, documents, communications, and data that relate in any way to the subject matter of the Notice of Violations and their compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (52 U.S.C. § 20501), the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) (52 U.S.C. § 20901), and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) (52 U.S.C. § 10101).

The letters also serve as formal notice that Unite4Freedom intends to commence civil action against the states if the violations identified in the Notices are not fully remedied within the time period outlined in NVRA—90 days after a State receives written notice of the violation, or within 20 days after receipt of such notice if the violation occurred within 120 days before the date of an election for Federal office. (52 U.S.C. § 20510(b)(2)).

Records to Be Preserved

The preservation obligation described in the letters applies to all records—paper or electronic—necessary to validate the State’s compliance with the VRA, the NVRA, and HAVA, including:

• The statewide voter registration list and all historical snapshots, exports, and version histories of that list;
• All records used to ensure the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters, including list-maintenance mailings, notices, and responses;
• Records of registrations, cancellations, transfers, rejections, and purges, including the basis and source data for each such action;
• Records reflecting coordination between the statewide voter registration database and other State agency records, including motor vehicle, public assistance, corrections, vital records (death), and felony-status data;
• Policies, procedures, protocols, training materials, and internal guidance concerning voter list maintenance, registration processing, and NVRA, HAVA, and VRA compliance;
• Correspondence, memoranda, and communications among or between State officials, county or local election officials, vendors, contractors, and any other person concerning the subject matter of the Notice of Violations;
• Contracts, statements of work, and communications with any third-party vendor or contractor that performs list-maintenance, data-matching, or registration-processing services on the State’s behalf, along with that vendor’s or contractor’s own underlying records;
• Audit logs, metadata, database change logs, and system-access records reflecting who made changes to voter records, when, and why;
• Backup tapes, archived files, and legacy-system data that would otherwise be subject to a routine retention or deletion schedule; and
• Any other document or data compilation that would be responsive to, or that was created in response to, the Notice of Violations.

Why Do These Records Matter?

Election records are the evidence needed to determine what happened in an election and whether applicable legal requirements were followed. The records should show when voter registrations were created, changed, transferred, or cancelled; when voter-history information changed; what information was used to make those changes; who or what system made them; and whether required list-maintenance procedures were followed.

Without complete and preserved records, discrepancies cannot be fully investigated, timelines cannot be reconstructed, and election officials cannot demonstrate how and why changes to voter records occurred.

U4F’s question is straightforward: Can the states produce the records necessary to explain the discrepancies and demonstrate compliance with federal law?

Why Does this Question Matter?

Between 2024 and 2026, the 35 states analyzed by Unite4Freedom elected 370 members of Congress—approximately 85 percent of the House of Representatives. Those analyses have identified millions of records that warrant investigation for potential violations of federal election law across multiple election cycles.

Unite4Freedom is not asking the public to assume that discrepancies prove fraud, nor should the government expect the public to assume that every discrepancy is harmless. The evidence should determine the answer, and states are obliged to prove it.

When significant discrepancies are identified in official election records, the appropriate response is not simply to assure the public that the system worked. The underlying records should be preserved, examined, and used to establish what actually occurred.

The preservation notices are intended to ensure that the evidence necessary to answer those questions remains available.

Unite4Freedom will continue its non-partisan efforts to restore lawful, accurate, and transparent elections by using official records, administrative remedies, and lawful judicial processes to seek answers and, where warranted, corrective action. Visit unite4freedom.com/litigation for our latest updates.