United States v. Benson

Public Rights Project is urging an appeals court to uphold a lower court decision against the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) attempts to collect election records from state election offices. PRP filed an amicus brief on behalf of 18 local election officials.

The brief argues that DOJ is required by law to justify its need for sensitive voter data. We explain the reason why the court should block the Trump administration’s unlawful attempts at accessing voter records:

• Surges in public record requests, including ones from DOJ, place an unnecessary burden on local election officials and threaten to impede their ability to run an election. 
• DOJ is required to provide an adequate basis under the law to receive the voter records that include sensitive voter data. 
• Michigan has met its list maintenance requirements under the National Voter Registration Act.

DOJ has sued over half of all states and one county for sensitive voter data, in each case claiming to investigate whether election officials are complying with voter list maintenance practices. When Michigan provided its public voter list, excluding sensitive information, DOJ sued and lost. The district court ruled that states aren’t required to provide sensitive voter data. DOJ has now appealed.

We’re urging the court to enforce the laws that ban local election officials from disclosing sensitive voter information in response to public records requests.

Read the amicus brief.