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The Justice Department has sued at least 23 states and the
District of Columbia in its effort to obtain detailed voter
information. In an opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge
Hala Y. Jarbou, a Trump nominee, said the laws cited by the
Justice Department in its complaint, including the Civil Rights
Act of 1960, do not require the disclosure of the records it
sought.
The Justice Department has said it is seeking the data as part
of an effort to ensure election security, but Democratic
officials, including Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson,
say the demand violates state and federal privacy laws. Election
officials have raised concerns that federal officials are trying
to use the sensitive data for other purposes, such as searching
for potential noncitizens on the rolls.
Elections in the United States are administered at the state and
local level, where individual voter information is kept.
Natalie Baldassarre, a spokesperson for the Justice Department,
declined to comment when reached by email and did not say
whether the department will appeal the decision.
In July, the Justice Department requested voter records from the
state of Michigan, including a copy of Michigan's unredacted
voter registration list. In September, Michigan officials said
the state would only share public voter registration
information, which does not include identifying information such
as birth dates, addresses and partial Social Security numbers,
prompting the federal lawsuit.
“Today’s decision affirms that the law is on our side,” Benson
said in a statement Tuesday.
The Justice Department argued in court documents that the
information was necessary to ensure Michigan was properly
maintaining voter registrations, and cited three federal laws:
the Civil Rights Act of 1960, National Voter Registration Act of
1993 and the Help America Vote act of 2022.
The three laws, “do not allow the United States to obtain the
records at issue in this case,” Jarbou wrote in her opinion.
Federal judges have also dismissed similar lawsuits in Oregon
and California. A federal judge in Georgia recently dismissed a
similar suit after ruling the federal government had sued in the
wrong city.
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