Overview
- U.S. District Judge David O. Carter dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking unredacted data on about 23 million California voters, calling the request unprecedented and illegal.
- Carter ruled the department’s claims were insufficient under federal civil rights and voting laws and warned that centralizing sensitive identifiers could deter people from registering and voting.
- In Oregon, U.S. District Judge Mustafa K. Kasubhai said he is tentatively inclined to dismiss a similar suit and to limit officials to the public voter list without full birth dates, driver’s license numbers, or partial Social Security numbers.
- The Justice Department has sued 23 states plus Washington, D.C., to obtain full voter files, saying it needs them to assess roll maintenance and citizenship eligibility, while only a handful of states have complied.
- State officials and civil-rights groups cite privacy laws and potential interagency use of voter data as core concerns, with ongoing cases in other jurisdictions expected to move toward appeals.