Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice filed federal lawsuits against six states – including New York – seeking unredacted statewide voter registration lists. That includes trying to access information such as voters’ social security numbers and drivers’ license numbers.
Last week, the League of Women Voters of New York State filed a motion to intervene in the case. The state’s League of Women Voters’ Executive Director, Erica Smitka says she is concerned that the government collecting such information could contribute to voter suppression.
"We expect that they'll use this information to do a few things. We think that they're going to use it to continue to push falsehoods about election security and election fraud. We think they may use it to target potential political opponents," Smitka said. "We know they're working in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security, so they may use it for immigration enforcement. And other things they might try to do are attempt to force states to remove voters from the database when they're not eligible to be purged."
In response to an inquiry, the U.S. Department of Justice referred to a press release about the lawsuits, with a statement from Attorney General Pam Bondi that says, in part: “Clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections.” The release also says the attorney general is charged by Congress with the enforcement of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), federal laws meant to ensure states have “proper and effective voter registration and voter list maintenance programs.”
The cases are pending.
