DOJ wants do-over for ‘legally deficient’ demand for state voter rolls

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is asking courts in 13 voter roll data lawsuits for a mulligan on its original demands for states’ voter roll data. 

The pleas for a re-do — derided by one state as a bid “to rescue their current, legally deficient demand” — come after a federal judge last week dismissed the department’s Massachusetts lawsuit ‚ the fourth loss DOJ has suffered, with zero wins.

Since last May, the DOJ has sent letters to nearly every state, demanding access to each state’s unredacted voter rolls. The department has cited the Civil Rights Act of 1960 (CRA), along with several federal voting laws, as justification for its demand. 

But in the Massachusetts case, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, noted in his opinion that the department failed to state any basis for its demand, as required by the CRA. 

“The United States’ complaint fails for the simple reason that the Attorney General’s demand did not comply with Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the statute on which it purports to rely,” Sorokin wrote. “Here, the Attorney General offered no basis—none—and the demand was therefore facially inadequate.”

In other words, under the CRA, the DOJ can demand that states hand over their full voter rolls only if it cites evidence that a state might not be complying with federal voting laws. 

But the DOJ failed to do that. As a result, courts in both California and Oregon, as well as Massachusetts, rejected their claims.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon filed 13 near-identical notices this week — in Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin — asking courts permission to send states new letters, in order to avoid more dismissed lawsuits for similar reasons. 

“If the Court is persuaded by Galvin’s formalistic approach, the United States requests that the Court provide leave for the United States to send Defendant a curing elaboration letter rather than dismiss on the merits to avoid unnecessary delay in resolution of the underlying legal issues,” Dhillon wrote. 

So far, only Maine has responded to the DOJ’s request. Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) said the court should tell the department to kick rocks. 

“Should the United States wish to send Maine an additional letter demanding records, it is of course free to do so,” Frey wrote. “But the Secretary [of State] also has the right to review and respond to any such demand. The Court should not permit the United States to graft it onto existing litigation to rescue their current, legally deficient demand.”