DOJ sues Washington state for not providing voter registration data

DOJ suing WA for not handing over voter data

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against six states, including Washington, for refusing to provide voter registration data following a request.

OLYMPIA, Wash. - The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Washington, along with several other states, for not providing voter registration data.

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division filed federal lawsuits against six states on Tuesday, including Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

The backstory:

Washington's Office of the Secretary of State previously denied the Department of Justice's (DOJ) request to turn over the state's voter registration records back in September.

WA denies DOJ's request for voter data

Washington's Secretary of State has declined the Department of Justice's request to turn over voter registration lists.

The records included voters' dates of birth, addresses, driver's license numbers and the last four digits of each registrant's social security number. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said he would not release any information until the DOJ explained what they plan to do with the data.

What they're saying:

The DOJ says their request for statewide voter registration lists is to ensure they are accurate, along with the effectiveness of voter list maintenance programs.

"Our federal elections laws ensure every American citizen may vote freely and fairly," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. "States that continue to defy federal voting laws interfere with our mission of ensuring that Americans have accurate voter lists as they go to the polls, that every vote counts equally, and that all voters have confidence in election results. At this Department of Justice, we will not stand for this open defiance of federal civil rights laws."

The lawsuit, which Washington state officials say was filed incorrectly, cites the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1960 as justification for enforcing the voter data requests.

"Accurate voter rolls are the cornerstone of fair and free elections, and too many states have fallen into a pattern of noncompliance with basic voter roll maintenance," said Attorney General Pam Bondi. "The Department of Justice will continue filing proactive election integrity litigation until states comply with basic election safeguards."

The other side:

Secretary Steve Hobbs says Washington is willing to work with the DOJ and provide the voter data, but isn't going to give out private voter information, which is protected under the Privacy Act of 1974.

"It's not just our state but several states, including Republican secretaries of state, interpret this as, ‘We’re not supposed to turn over the data because none of those acts that you just mentioned give the authority for us to just hand over private information,' such as the last four of the social security number, driver's license, full birthdate," Hobbs told FOX 13. "In fact, look, we're willing to work with the Department of Justice, we'll give them the information, but we're not going to give them the information that's considered private. We're just not going to do it."

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson also responded to the lawsuit, adding that the Trump administration has been the subject of litigation in multiple cases filed by Washington this year.

"We're very confident we'll be successful in court, as we are against the Trump administration almost every single time we see them in court, whether we're on the offense or they're suing us," Gov. Ferguson said.

The deadline for Washington state to respond to the lawsuit was not specified in a press release from the DOJ.

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