Two organizations in West Virginia contend federal officials are overstepping in pursuit of an unredacted statewide voter registration list.
West Virginia Citizen Action and West Virginia Alliance for Retired Americans each have submitted filings in federal district court to push back on positions taken by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Department of Justice moved earlier this month to compel West Virginia officials to release the list that would include state voters’ information like birth dates, residential addresses, drivers license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
The Justice Department has filed federal lawsuits against 30 states, so far, plus the District of Columbia, seeking orders compelling them to turn over their data.
So far, five federal district courts have dismissed the Justice Department’s suits on the merits in California, Oregon, Michigan, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
This has been an ongoing issue in West Virginia since Secretary of State Kris Warner twice said no, citing state law and personal voter information.
The Department of Justice contends that parts of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 provide the Attorney General with a unique and broad investigative authority to compel the production of federal election records.
DOJ contends that the judge’s courtroom role is “severely limited” to confirming that a written demand was made, it was directed to an officer of election and the officer refused to comply.
The lawyers for the Department of Justice maintain the demand for voting records is not a traditional civil action. Instead, they argue it is a summary proceeding similar to an administrative summons or a grand jury investigation.
DOJ maintains that standard discovery and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not apply to these requests.
West Virginia Citizen Action, in a new filing, calls that a shortcut without basis.
“Plaintiff uses the motion to compel as a vehicle to obtain the only relief it seeks in this case: access to West Virginia’s unredacted voter registration list,” wrote lawyers for the organization.
“Plaintiff makes this attempted end-run around judicial review because its demand under the CRA is plainly deficient insofar as it fails to state the basis and the purpose for obtaining the unredacted voter list.
West Virginia Alliance for Retired Americans, in a memorandum the organization is asking to file with the federal court, says also says DOJ’s approach is malarkey.
“The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure govern and dictate the lifecycle of civil actions in federal court,” lawyers for the organization wrote, noting that defendants may move to dismiss.
“If that motion is denied, the case proceeds to discovery, summary judgment, and trial (if necessary). At each stage, courts apply well-established standards to test the sufficiency of the claims and arguments before them, and the parties have the opportunity to build a record, ensuring the ordered and efficient resolution of disputes.”
Yet in this case, the organization contends, “The Department of Justice asks the Court to bypass that entire process.”
The West Virginia Alliance for Retired Americans is a coalition of union retirees primarily affiliated with the AFL-CIO—and community groups dedicated to promoting retirement security and social justice for older West Virginians.
Lawyers for the group contend that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 does not authorize such a summary process and requires a specific factual basis and purpose, which the government has allegedly failed to provide.
Furthermore, both groups claim the demand is a pretextual federal takeover of election administration that violates voter privacy and conflicts with existing state laws.
“The Court should reject DOJ’s request to short-circuit the Federal Rules in this case,” wrote attorneys for the West Virginia Alliance for Retired Americans.
The Department of Justice asserts that it needs unredacted voter registration lists to assess West Virginia’s compliance with the list-maintenance requirements of the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.
The lawyers for West Virginia Citizen Action doubt that necessity.
“Here, the Attorney General failed to state the purpose for his request because he failed to explain why he needs access to driver’s license numbers and social security numbers to evaluate whether West Virginia’s general list-maintenance programs meet the standard of ‘reasonable effort,” the lawyers wrote.
The two West Virginia groups suggest DOJ hasn’t been completely forthcoming about its reasons for wanting the information — and that its true motives involve and a federal takeover of voter list maintenance.
If the case isn’t dismissed outright, wrote the lawyers for West Virginia Alliance for Retired Americans, “the next step would be discovery on DOJ’s claim, including into the basis and purpose for DOJ’s demand. Indeed, it is already apparent that there are potential disputes of material fact on these central questions.”