DOJ sues Pennsylvania for failure to produce voter registration lists

The battle over voter registration lists between Pennsylvania and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has taken another turn.

On Thursday, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division announced the filing of federal lawsuits against six states — California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania — for failure to produce their statewide voter registration lists upon request.

“Clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Every state has a responsibility to ensure that voter registration records are accurate, accessible, and secure — states that don’t fulfill that obligation will see this Department of Justice in court.”

On August 4, the department asked Pennsylvania for a copy of its voter rolls, as well as for information on answers it provided to a national election survey. The DOJ then sent a follow-up letter to clarify that it was seeking the version of the rolls containing personally identifiable information.

Pennsylvania told DOJ on August 21 that it would not give federal officials a version of the state’s voter rolls that contains personal information that included Social Security and driver’s license numbers.

“The Justice Department’s demand for voters’ personal information, including driver’s license numbers and Social Security numbers, is unprecedented and unlawful, and we will vigorously fight the federal government’s overreach in court,” said Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt. “The Department of State will aggressively defend the privacy of Pennsylvania voters against this baseless lawsuit and as Secretary of the Commonwealth, I have an obligation to protect the personal information that Pennsylvania voters entrust us with, and I take that obligation extremely seriously.”

Schmidt had written to the DOJ that his department could provide a public version of the voter rolls, known as the Full Voter Export, which contains information such as name, age, address, and vote history, but that it was prohibited by law from providing voters’ Social Security and driver’s license numbers.

“States are required to safeguard American elections by complying with our federal elections laws,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Clean voter rolls protect American citizens from voting fraud and abuse, and restore their confidence that their states’ elections are conducted properly, with integrity, and in compliance with the law.”

According to the lawsuit against the Keystone State, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice is “tasked with ensuring that States conduct voter-registration-list maintenance to prevent the inclusion of ineligible voters on any State’s voter registration list. This action seeks to remedy Defendants’ violations of federal voting laws.”

“The United States brings this action pursuant to its authority under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the Civil Rights Act of 1960 (CRA) to compel the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and its chief state election official, Secretary of State Al Schmidt, to provide information regarding the State’s voter list maintenance procedures and an electronic copy of the statewide voter registration list including all fields, to allow the Attorney General to effectively assess Defendants’ compliance with the requirements of the NVRA and HAVA.”

“This isn’t just about a data request,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) said in a statement to Democracy Docket. “It’s about protecting your privacy, your security, and your fundamental right to vote free from unnecessary federal overreach. Once that information leaves our custody, there is no guarantee about how it’s handled, where it ends up, or whether it’s properly secured. To date, there has been no clear legal justification or transparent explanation for these demands.”

Though DOJ has not filed a lawsuit against Arizona, Fontes has forcefully rejected the department’s demand to hand over its voter registration data.

Steve Ulrich is managing editor of Politics PA.