A federal judge said he had plenty of help figuring out how to deny the Trump administration’s bid for access to sensitive voter information from Washington, D.C.
“At this time, 20 district courts and the Sixth Circuit have denied the government’s motion to compel on various grounds, leaving the court with no shortage of guidance on these issues,” U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss wrote in dismissing the federal government’s anti-voting lawsuit Aug. 6.
Randolph Moss
The Department of Justice now has lost 21 of its 31 attempts to force states to share voter rolls as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to limit election participation in the November midterms.
The Department of Justice argued that Title III of the Civil Rights Act compels states to provide voter registration records in order to ensure compliance with federal voting laws. With his ruling, Moss became the 16th judge to shoot down that claim.
“After careful consideration, the court agrees with the 15 courts that have held that Title III does not authorize the attorney general to compel state election officials to produce unredacted copies of their states’ voter registration lists,” Moss wrote.
And like other judges, Moss also concluded that providing sensitive voter information to the federal government would violate the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act — the very laws the DOJ cites in its litigation.
If the government’s assertions were correct, Title III would punish state election officials for complying with those two laws, Moss noted. “Nothing in the text of Title III compels this strange and unharmonious reading of federal election law.”
In fact, neither the Civil Rights Act nor HAVA or NVRA contain any provision that allows a state to release its lists of voters along with Social Security and driver’s license data to DOJ, Moss wrote. “If the department disagrees with Congress’ judgment as to the records necessary to carry out its enforcement duties under either HAVA or the NVRA, it needs to lodge that objection with Congress.”
The administration has sued 30 states plus the District of Columbia over access to unredacted voter rolls.
Altogether, the administration has sued 30 states plus the District of Columbia over access to unredacted voter rolls, with lawsuits pending against Arizona, California, Kentucky, New Mexico, Michigan, Oregon, New York and Virginia. DOJ has filed appeals in most of those cases. Pending cases remain against Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Nevada, Utah, Vermont and Washington.
The department’s lawsuits stem Trump’s determined attempts to control and limit voting nationwide. In March, he signed an executive order overriding state election laws by restricting mail-in voting and requiring the U.S. Postal Service and Department of Homeland Security to maintain databases of registered voters. An executive order issued last year requires Americans to present documentary proof to register to vote.
The administration also has been heavily pushing the SAVE Act that requires voters to present passports or birth certificates to register to vote. The mandate would create a hardship for the estimated 21 million Americans without ready access to those documents, according to Brennan Center for Justice.
“That doesn’t include married women who have changed their names and would have to jump through extra hoops to prove their citizenship,” the center noted. “The bill would also require voters to show their papers in person, upending voter registration across the country just months before election day. Voters could no longer register to vote by mail or online or through a voter registration drive.”
However, both executive orders have been challenged and blocked in federal courts and the SAVE Act remains stalled in the U.S. Senate.