Phil Lyman loses again: Judge tosses lawsuit over Utah's voter rolls

Another court loss for former Rep. Phil Lyman: on Thursday a federal judge threw out his latest bid to cast doubt on his 2024 GOP gubernatorial primary loss.

Last year, Lyman sued in federal court, alleging Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) by refusing to turn over Utah’s statewide voter registration list—including birth years and records marked “private” or “withheld.” Utah law bars private access to that data.

In his suit, he argued that NVRA requires states to let people inspect voter registration records and should override Utah’s privacy protections.

On Thursday, federal District Judge David Nuffer tossed the case, holding that even if Henderson violated NVRA as Lyman claims, he showed no real harm from being denied access to the records, and therefore had no standing to sue.

“Mr. Lyman only wants information to monitor the Lt. Governor’s compliance with the NVRA,” Nuffer wrote. "He faces no threat of prosecution; no civil penalty; no viewpoint discrimination; and no adverse consequence beyond being denied access to data he seeks."

“Mr. Lyman can see the portions of Utah’s voter rolls designated ‘public’ on the Lt. Governor’s website,” Nuffer added.

Lyman’s suit was backed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), a right-wing nonprofit that pushes voter fraud claims and routinely sues to force voter‑roll purges of alleged noncitizens or deceased voters.

The organization has been affiliated with prominent election deniers. Cleta Mitchell, who took part in Donald Trump’s infamous phone call following the 2020 election where he pressured Georgia election officials to “find” 11,780 votes, served as chairperson of the organizations board of directors, and John Eastman, who cooked up the “fake elector” scheme to try and help Trump overturn his election loss, was listed as a director for the organization on its 2021 tax filings.

In March, the conservative group Judicial Watch threatened to sue Henderson over access to Utah’s voter registration lists, arguing Utah violated NVRA by restricting the data.

Last May, the Department of Justice demanded that multiple states, including Utah, turn over copies of their voter databases. Henderson rejected the request, saying that Utah “is in compliance with federal election law, including NVRA.”

Since 2021, Lyman has embraced election‑fraud conspiracy theories—and tried repeatedly to pry open Utah’s full voter database.

• In 2021, Lyman traveled to South Dakota with then-Rep. Steve Christiansen for Mike Lindell’s “cyber symposium” where the My Pillow CEO promised “irrefutable” proof that Chinese hackers stole the 2020 election for Joe Biden.
• Later that year, Christiansen and Lyman tried to leverage their offices as to obtain copies of Utah’s entire voter database. That request was denied.
• In 2022, Lyman spoke at a Colorado election conspiracy conference hosted by Lindell.
• A few days after the Colorado event, Lyman floated baseless claims that voting machines were flipping votes from Republican Mike Lee to independent Evan McMullin.
• As his 2024 primary loss loomed, Lyman and his allies tried to undermine Spencer Cox’s ballot qualification via signatures. He repeatedly sought access to Cox’s signature packets to “verify” alleged fraud—access state law forbids. A lawsuit over that demand was tossed.
• After losing the primary, Lyman launched a write-in bid for governor and finished third. He then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block certification of Cox’s win—and to throw out the 2024 results entirely. Both efforts were denied.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story said Cleta Mitchell and John Eatman were current members of the board of directors for the Public Interest Legal Foundation. It has been corrected. We regret the error.

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