The Wisconsin Elections Commission, in contrast, claims that it has already provided publicly-available data for more than 3.6 million registered voters. It has also challenged the Justice Department’s legal argument, saying that nothing in the Civil Rights Act of 1960 provides the Trump administration with the power to forcibly requisition confidential information from individual states.
Wisconsin officials have asked a federal court to dismiss a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit demanding confidential voter information from 29 states.
According to WPR, the Justice Department first filed its lawsuit against Wisconsin in December, shortly after the state’s election commission refused requests to divulge “unredacted voter registration data.” This information would have included driver’s license numbers, addresses, and the last four numbers of residents’ Social Security numbers.
In its lawsuit, the federal government claims that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 requires states to share such information upon any request submitted by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, ostensibly to verify whether Wisconsin—or any of the other targeted states—is complying with the Help America Vote Act and National Voter Registration Act.
The Justice Department also claims that it has unilateral authority to make such requests; authority that federal courts cannot diminish or in any way impede. In court filings, the agency has repeatedly claimed that judges are only entitled to determine whether a request has been made and whether states have received sufficient notice to respond.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission, in contrast, claims that it has already provided publicly-available data for more than 3.6 million registered voters. It has also challenged the Justice Department’s legal argument, saying that nothing in the Civil Rights Act of 1960 provides the Trump administration with the power to forcibly requisition confidential information from individual states.
“US DOJ does not allege that its proposed audit would enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1960, other civil rights laws, or any constitutional amendment,” the Wisconsin Elections Commission said in its motion to dismiss. “Nor could it. US DOJ’s concern appears to be that Wisconsin is not removing ineligible voters from its rolls fast enough.”
Derek Clinger, a senior attorney with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s State Democracy Research Initiative, told WPR that the government’s decision to invoke the Civil Rights Act is “interesting.”
“You’ve got this tricky interpretive question about whether or not this law written in 1960 was meant to apply to the concept of a statewide voter registration list, which did not exist for another four decades,” Clinger said.
The lawsuit against Wisconsin was approved by U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harpreet Dhillon, a 2020 election conspiracy theorist who tried to overturn President Donald Trump’s loss in court. It was also signed by Eric Neff, the acting chief of the DoJ’s Civil Rights Division, and trial attorney Brittany Bennett. Both Neff and Bennett have been involved in litigation against voting technology companies, which conservative conspiracy theorists alleged influenced the outcome of the election in Joe Biden’s favor.
Sources
Complaint: US v Wisconsin Elections Commission
Wisconsin election officials pushing back against US DOJ lawsuit seeking voter list
Join the conversation!