Secretary of State Kris Warner says there was no reason for the U.S. Department of Justice to sue West Virginia over unredacted voter data.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston, a George W. Bush appointee, dismissed a Department of Justice lawsuit over the demand this week.
The Department of Justice was asking the federal court 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.
DOJ had contended 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.
West Virginia officials argued that the request was legally deficient and that the voter list is a protected, internally created database that is exempt from federal production requirements.
As in the other states, lawyers for West Virginia argued the Justice Department request lacks a specific factual basis and pursues a pretextual purpose related to immigration enforcement rather than voting rights.
“State law is very clear that we can’t share private voter data. That’s telephone numbers, email addresses, driver’s license, Social Security numbers. You know, we’re we’re following the law, and and the federal judge didn’t buy the Department of Justice’s argument that the Civil Rights Act gives the federal government carte blanche access to the data that they want,” Warner said on MetroNews Talkline.
“So Congress writes the laws and didn’t provide for the Department of Justice access to that data. And we agree with the Department of Justice’s mission to keep the rules clean, hold states accountable for following federal law. But this didn’t justify the way that they were trying to get the information.”
Similar lawsuits have been dismissed by federal judges across the country. So far, federal district courts have dismissed the Justice Department’s suits on the merits in states including California, Oregon, Michigan, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Arizona, Maine, Wisconsin, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and now West Virginia.
“Now that the lawsuits from DOJ are failing across numerous states, the list of states gives us clear evidence that this is not a partisan issue. We continue to be gratified that SOS Warner chose to follow the law,” said Judy Ball, co-president of the League of Women Voters of West Virginia.
“We are relieved that the DOJ appears to be backing off, but we also understand that we cannot be overconfident. The threat may not be over. Continued vigilance is necessary.”
In the West Virginia case, the judge ruled that the federal government failed to provide a necessary factual basis or a valid purpose for its demand, noting that the request lacked evidence of specific wrongdoing.
Moreover, the judge determined that the U.S. Attorney General cannot use broad records requests to conduct “fishing expeditions” into sensitive personal information without a clear connection to protecting individual voting rights.
In a footnote, Johnston wrote, “Given the lack of an adequate basis or purpose, one is left to wonder what the real purpose was for the Justice Department to go to the trouble of filing civil actions like this one all around the nation. Troubling though this question is, it is not before the Court at this time.”
West Virginia Citizen Action Group filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in the lawsuit. The judge’s order did not address the motion to intervene or the position of West Virginia Citizen Action.
The organization’s court filings maintain the Department of Justice demand was a pretextual federal takeover of election administration that violates voter privacy and conflicts with existing state laws.
“The widespread lack of justification demonstrates again that DOJ seeks to misuse the CRA as an unlimited tool to compile and consolidate voter data, and to interfere with the states’ rights to administer their own elections, rather than to protect the right to vote,” wrote lawyers for West Virginia Citizen Action.
Lawyers for West Virginia Citizen Action continued, “DOJ’s public statements and documents obtained from the agency through Freedom of Information Act requests confirm its goal was not to review list-maintenance procedures, but to expand federal control over elections and target voters for removal.”
Asked on radio if he anticipates the issue could re-emerge, Warner said his office is focused on administering the next election.
“You know, you know the DOJ may appeal, but we’re confident in our interpretation of the the state law. But you know we’ve got a we’ve got a federal midterm general election to administer, and that’s where our elections division and I are going to stay focused for the next couple of months,” Warner said.
He concluded, “But nothing would surprise me at this point.”