Federal Overreach - Voter Roll Edition

The federal government has now filed lawsuits against 21 states, plus D.C., demanding registrants’ unredacted private information — including driver license numbers, social security numbers and dates of birth — in a campaign decried by local officials and legal experts as an unconstitutional attack on states’ authority to run elections and an illegal attempt to create an unprecedented national voter database.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon heralded the lawsuit against Georgia in recent interviews, complaining that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) had told her to “pound sand” in response to her voter data demands.

...In refusing the DOJ’s demands, states say the agency lacks the authority to compel production of the data and has failed to ensure compliance with federal and state privacy laws.

Dhillon has promised to sue every state that does not comply with the DOJ’s demands.

The complaint filed by the DOJ in D.C. included drafting comments from voting section trial attorney Brittany E. Bennett, who represented the Georgia GOP in a failed lawsuit that sought to ban the state from using Dominion voting machines.

DoJ filing:
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The administration’s lawsuits mostly target Democratic states, where election officials refused initial requests for voter data and allege the demand is unlawful and risks the privacy of millions of voters. They have also voiced fears that the Trump administration could use the information to target its political enemies....

“What the DOJ is trying to do is something that should frighten everybody across the political spectrum,” said David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research. “They’re trying to use the power of the executive branch to bully states into turning over highly sensitive data: date of birth, Social Security number, driver’s license — the holy trinity of identity theft.”

Becker, who worked as a senior trial attorney in the Justice Department’s Voting Section during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, told reporters on Dec. 8 that several states received the memorandum....

The draft memorandum of understanding, which is labeled “confidential,” outlines the terms of the proposed agreement between each state and the Justice Department. After a state provides its voter roll, the federal department would agree to test, analyze and assess the information. The department would then notify states of “any voter list maintenance issues, insufficiencies, inadequacies, deficiencies, anomalies, or concerns” found.


Each state would agree to “clean” its voter roll within 45 days by removing any ineligible voters, according to the memorandum. States would then resubmit their voter data to the Justice Department for verification.

While the Justice Department has demanded states’ voter rolls since this summer, the memorandum of understanding offers the most detailed picture to date of how the Trump administration plans to use the data.

Above is from the link. CF not allowing indention.

Oompa Loompa said:

All required to provide to law enforcement when requested.

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Not without reasonable articulable suspicion. Law enforcement, in most states, can't just demand that from random people on the street.

Oompa Loompa said:

How dare anybody request such information to validate a person's right to vote.

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That is not the problem here - it's that the federal government - which does NOT control state election laws - is demanding this information to give the Department of Homeland Security.