Federal judges in Maine and Wisconsin on Thursday rejected the Justice Department’s bid for unredacted voter registration records, dealing another setback to a nationwide effort to obtain state voter rolls. The dismissals left the department 0-8 in 31 lawsuits brought against states and Washington, D.C.
In Maine, U.S. District Judge Lance Walker held that voter list maintenance is not among the investigatory purposes that can support a Title III records demand. He wrote that the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act do not contemplate a line-by-line audit of each state’s computerized statewide voter registration list by the federal government, and that the Justice Department must use the pre-suit investigation and enforcement tools Congress built into those laws instead of forcing production of the unredacted list to the attorney general. Walker also said the government leans heavily on Title III of the Civil Rights Act even though it was not drawn with present concerns in mind.
Walker’s ruling turned on how far federal power reaches into state election files. He wrote that he did not believe a voter registration list can fairly be described as a record or paper that comes into the possession of Maine’s election officers, and said that, “whatever investigatory purposes may support a Title III records demand, voter list maintenance is not among them.” He also noted that nearly every state has received a similar request and that many, including Maine, declined it.
In Wisconsin, U.S. District Judge James Peterson reached a similar conclusion and said statewide voter registration lists are not records subject to the Civil Rights Act. He wrote that § 20701 does not encompass records created by state election officials, including voter registration lists, and added that the government’s arguments were not persuasive. The two rulings echoed earlier reasoning used in Michigan and Arizona to dismiss other Justice Department cases seeking the same material.
The Justice Department has said it wants the records to make sure states are complying with voter roll maintenance requirements in the NVRA and HAVA, and it has claimed Title III gives it authority to demand them. But Walker said the United States had already initiated thirty lawsuits nearly identical to the Maine case, with six dismissed on motions like the ones before him. The pattern now leaves the department with a stark record after Thursday: no wins in eight lawsuits over the same voter-roll fight.
The immediate question is no longer whether the department can press its interpretation in a single state. It is whether any court will accept the idea that Title III gives Washington unfettered access to state voter registration rolls after so many judges have now said Congress did not write those laws that way.
