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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today co-led a coalition of 16 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief supporting California's motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit demanding complete, unredacted voter registration databases from states across the country.
The brief, filed in United States v. Shirley Weber, et al. in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, argues that the federal government's demand is part of a larger effort to aggregate personal information, collected by states, about the people who live in the country. The brief points out, though, that the federal government lacks legal authority to compel states to turn over sensitive voter data and that such demands violate both the Constitution's protection of state authority over elections and federal privacy laws.
“Maryland voters deserve to cast ballots without worrying that their registration information will be mishandled," said Attorney General Brown. “The administration's unlawful demands threaten both individual privacy and our collective confidence in our elections. We won't allow federal overreach to undermine voting rights or discourage participation in our democracy."
The federal government has demanded voter database information from 42 states and has filed lawsuits against seven states in addition to California. The requested data includes personally identifying information such as partial Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers, and could also include information about voters' party affiliation, disability status, and participation history. The unredacted information could expose participants in address confidentiality programs designed to protect victims of domestic violence, sexual assault survivors, law enforcement officers, and judicial officials.
The brief places these voter data demands in the broader context of unprecedented federal efforts to collect and aggregate Americans' personal information. Similar demands have been made for state SNAP and Medicaid data, with courts already issuing preliminary injunctions blocking some of these efforts as unlawful.
The brief argues that the Department of Justice's demands exceed its authority under three federal statutes the government cites in support of its efforts: the Help America Vote Act, the National Voter Registration Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1960. None of these laws authorize the sweeping collection of sensitive voter information, and the Civil Rights Act's record inspection authority was specifically designed to investigate racial discrimination in voting – not to conduct general compliance reviews.
Additionally, the brief argues that the federal government has failed to comply with the Privacy Act of 1974, which requires agencies to follow specific procedures before collecting personal information and strictly limits what data may be collected and how it may be shared. The Act specifically prohibits agencies from retaining records describing how individuals exercise First Amendment rights unless expressly authorized by statute.
Joining Attorney General Brown in filing the brief are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
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