Overview
- U.S. District Judge Anne Traum dismissed the Department of Justice’s case against Nevada, ruling Friday that the Civil Rights Act does not compel state officials to provide unredacted voter-registration lists.
- The DOJ had asked for full voter records including full names, dates of birth, residential addresses and either driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers, a demand Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar’s office rejected as unprecedented and intimidating.
- Traum highlighted a Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel note that the government sought full rolls to check for ineligible voters and that the effort could have incidental immigration enforcement consequences by supplying updated location information to DHS.
- The Nevada decision is the latest of more than 20 federal district-court losses for the DOJ’s theory; the department is appealing some dismissals, leaving open the prospect that federal appeals courts or the Supreme Court will set a national rule.
- In the near term voters and state officials face uneven access to sensitive data because some states provided limited files or local agencies obtained individual records, and upcoming appeals will shape privacy protections and the balance of state and federal election authority before future elections.