West Virginia’s Secretary of State, Kris Warner, is asking a federal judge to toss U.S. government demands for unredacted voter registration data.
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 same story is playing out in dozens of States across the country. The United States asks a State to turn over unredacted voter lists; the State refuses; the Government sues. But the Government’s suits have not been successful,” wrote lawyers for West Virginia’s Secretary of State in a memorandum.
“At least five federal courts have dismissed complaints nearly identical to this one.”
The West Virginia Secretary of State is being represented by counsel from the state Attorney General’s Office, including Michael Williams, the solicitor general.
The federal judge assigned to the case is Thomas Johnston, a George W. Bush appointee.
Lawyers for Warner argue the U.S. Department of Justice request is legally deficient because it lacks a specific factual basis and pursues a pretextual purpose related to immigration enforcement rather than voting rights.
“Though DOJ initially claimed the list-maintenance-review purpose, it seems the Government now wants to use the voter list for immigration enforcement reasons,” wrote lawyers for the Secretary of State.
“Demanding unredacted voter lists for this use would be outside the Civil Rights Act’s purview.”
Moreover, attorneys for the state maintain that the voter lists are internally created databases exempt from federal production requirements and that disclosure would violate state and federal privacy laws.
Overall, the Secretary of State maintains that the Constitution preserves state control over election mechanics, protecting unredacted information from federal overreach.
This has been an ongoing issue in West Virginia since Warner’s office twice said no, citing state law and personal voter information.
“The United States seeks unredacted access to West Virginia’s voter registration list. Secretary Warner cooperated as much as West Virginia law would allow him to, but he has explained that state law does not allow him to release the list without redactions,” wrote attorneys for the Secretary of State.
“The Secretary thus asked the Government to accept a redacted list. Instead, the Government sued.”
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.
The response by the Secretary of State counters that federal law “does not greenlight fishing expeditions. Nor does
it reduce the Secretary to a spectator instead of a defendant.”