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9h ago

DOJ Sues Oregon and Maine to Compel Unredacted Voter Rolls

The suits escalate a months-long federal drive to obtain unredacted voter files from dozens of states.

FILE - The Department of Justice seal is seen during a news conference at the DOJ office in Washington, May 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
PORTLAND, ME - NOVEMBER 8: Voters fill out their ballots in the patriotic voting booths at Merrill Auditorium with a hour and 20 minutes to go before the polls close. (Photo by Brianna Soukup/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
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Sign directs voters to a polling station on Election Day in Tucson, Arizona, U.S. November 3, 2020. REUTERS/Cheney Orr/ File Photo

Overview

  • The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division alleges violations of the NVRA, HAVA, and the Civil Rights Act for refusing electronic, unredacted statewide voter lists and details on list maintenance and ineligible registrants.
  • Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows rejected the requests on privacy and constitutional grounds and said they will contest the cases in court.
  • The department has sought voter rolls from at least 26 states, often requesting personally identifiable information such as dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers, and in some requests party affiliation.
  • Federal officials have threatened additional litigation, and Reuters reported the DOJ plans to share compiled voter data with Homeland Security Investigations for criminal or immigration-related checks, a prospect election experts say risks misuse and false positives.
  • The DOJ says both states previously provided identical information to a private organization, while several other states have only supplied public redacted files or declined based on privacy laws and federal Privacy Act concerns.