The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) appealed a lower federal court order denying it access to Arizona’s statewide voter registration list (SVRL) to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday. The list includes voters’ confidential information such as voters’ full name, date of birth, home address and driver’s license number or last four digits of their Social Security numbers.
This appeal comes after Judge Susan Brnovich of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona in April dismissed the DOJ’s case against Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes on the grounds that the Trump administration was not entitled to Arizona’s SVRL. A preliminary dismissal would mean that the DOJ could not refile the lawsuit.
The DOJ initiated the lawsuit after Fontes refused to produce the SVRL, citing state and federal privacy laws that prohibit the list’s release. In making her decision, Judge Brnovich relied on an identical lawsuit filed by the DOJ in Michigan. In this case, the court relied on the plain language of § 20701 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which states as follows:
Each election official shall, for a period of twenty-two months from the date of a general election, a special election or a primary election for which candidates are elected for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential Elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives or Resident Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, preserve and preserve all records and papers coming into his possession relating to applications, registrations, payments of poll taxes or other acts necessary for voting in such election
Section 20703 of the NVRA requires production of “any record or document” required to be preserved and preserved pursuant to Section 20701 upon written request from the Attorney General or his designee.
Following the court’s reasoning in Michigan, Judge Brnovich concluded that the SVRL does not constitute a document under Section 20701 because it does not constitute a record or document what has come “into the possession” of a state representative. “Coming into possession” refers to “a process by which someone acquires an item from an external source,” rather than its creation by that person. The court acknowledged that much of the information in the SVRL came from voter registration applications, which would mean that the state came into possession of that information. However, the court recalled that, as in the Michigan lawsuit, the information in the SVRL was not merely raw data compiled from voter registration applications. Rather, such information is changed or modified to ensure the maintenance of “accurate and correct data processing”. current Electoral register.”
For this reason, the SVRL is not a § 20701 document that merely came into the state’s possession. The court also noted the inherent conflict in recognizing the SVRL as a Section 20701 document because it would prevent the application of Section 20702, which requires the state to update and amend the SVRL as necessary to “ensure that accurate and current voter registration lists are maintained.”
This attempt to access the state’s voter registration list is part of a broader DOJ effort. In February, the DOJ sued Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia and New Jersey for failing to provide voter registration records. Critics have pointed out that this is the case was really aimed at exposing undocumented immigrants by creating a national voter database.
Fontes and Arizona AG Kris Mayes have vowed to defend The appeal said that “it will take more than political threats and baseless lawsuits” to stop her from working to protect Arizona voters and their personal information, calling the appeal “legally pointless.”
It is worth noting that it was Judge Brnovich appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump in 2018. She was the sixth judge, joining judges in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Rhode Island, to dismiss a DOJ lawsuit seeking voter registration information.
