By Nadia Ramlagan
West Virginia is one of more than two dozen states being sued by the Department of Justice for refusing to hand over voting records to the federal government.
One Charleston-based advocacy group has now filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia intervening in the case as a defendant.
So far the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office has refused multiple requests to hand over the data, said Julie Archer, deputy director of West Virginia Citizen Action Group.
“We’re very concerned that that this overreach could have a chilling effect,” said Archer, “and make West Virginians more hesitant to engage in the political process out of fear about how their data might be used or misused.”
Former U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in statement that the Department of Justice is fulfilling its duty to ensure transparency, voter roll maintenance, and secure elections across the country, and that accurate, well-maintained voter rolls are a requisite for election integrity.
Archer said certain data from voter rolls can be redacted, such as dates of birth and social security numbers, but argued that the federal government wants the sensitive information as part of its request.
“They are requesting an un-redacted version of the file,” said Archer, “and really, they have no valid basis for asking for that data and trying to seize it.”
West Virginia Citizen Action Group is representing thousands of voters across the state whose data may be compromised and is represented by attorneys from several advocacy groups, including the Campaign Legal Center, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU of West Virginia.
