Declassified intelligence names Alaska among states whose voter data was acquired by China

By THE ALASKA STORY

July 17, 2026 – Alaska is among 16 jurisdictions publicly identified by the White House in newly declassified intelligence concerning the Chinese government’s acquisition and analysis of American voter-registration data.

President Donald Trump discussed the intelligence during a nationally televised address Thursday, saying China had obtained approximately 220 million American voter files in what he described as the largest compromise of U.S. election data in history.

A July 13 announcement from the White House Government Transparency Task Force said voter-registration rolls from at least 18 states had been “compromised” by the People’s Republic of China. The announcement publicly named 15 states and the District of Columbia, with Alaska appearing first on the list.

The other named jurisdictions are Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Rhode Island.

The disclosure does not say how many Alaska voter records were obtained, when the acquisition occurred, or whether the information came through hacking, commercial data brokers, publicly available voter files, or some combination of sources.

It also does not allege that China changed Alaska ballots, vote totals, or election results.

“Compromised” in the White House announcement refers to China’s acquisition or exploitation of voter information. It does not necessarily mean hackers penetrated Alaska’s election system. Some voter-registration information is publicly or commercially available, although Alaska law protects dates of birth, Social Security and driver’s license numbers, voter identification numbers, signatures, places of birth, and certain residential addresses.

The newly released records reportedly show that Chinese intelligence collected voter information for activities such as identity matching, public-opinion analysis, and studying American political behavior. Such files can include names, addresses, voting histories, party affiliations, telephone numbers, and other personal details, depending on the source of the data.

The White House said Trump is notifying congressional and state leaders about election-infrastructure vulnerabilities identified in the intelligence.

The immediate question for Alaska officials is whether the state’s centralized voter-registration database was directly breached or whether China obtained an Alaska voter file from a public, commercial, or third-party source.

Neither the task force announcement nor the publicly described intelligence provides an Alaska-specific answer. There is also no public state-by-state accounting of how many records were affected or what information was included.

The disclosure comes amid continuing debate in Alaska over the security and privacy of the state’s voter rolls. In December 2025, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom’s office provided the US Department of Justice with an electronic copy of Alaska’s complete voter-registration list as part of a federal review of voter-roll maintenance, an act that received harsh criticism from Democrats who don’t want the federal government looking more closely at Alaska’s voter rolls.

China has denied interfering in American elections.

Earlier US intelligence assessments concluded that foreign actors did not alter voter registrations, ballots, vote tabulations, or reported results during the 2020 presidential election. The latest disclosure, however, expands the public record concerning China’s collection of voter data and raises questions about why the extent of that collection was not more widely disclosed at the time.

Trump accused elements within the intelligence community of downplaying or withholding information about China’s activities. He directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Justice Department, FBI, and CIA to investigate how the intelligence was handled.