\t\t\t\t\tOverview:<\/p>\n
Texas has turned over its voter roll to the U.S. Justice Department, complying with the Trump administration’s demand for access to data on millions of voters across the country. The state included identifiable information about voters, including dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. The Justice Department has said the effort is central to its mission of enforcing election law requiring states to regularly maintain voter lists by searching for and removing ineligible voters. However, concerns have been raised over the legality of the Justice Department’s effort to obtain states’ voter rolls and whether it could compromise voter privacy protections.<\/p>\n
Texas officials have turned over the state\u2019s voter roll to the U.S. Justice Department, according to a spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State\u2019s Office, complying with the Trump administration\u2019s demands for access to data on millions of voters across the country.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department last fall began asking\u00a0all 50 states<\/a>\u00a0for their voter rolls \u2014 massive lists containing significant identifying information on every registered voter in each state \u2014 and other election-related data. The Justice Department has said the effort is central to its mission of enforcing election law requiring\u00a0states to regularly maintain voter lists<\/a>\u00a0by searching for and removing ineligible voters.<\/p>\n Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State\u2019s Office, told Votebeat and The Texas Tribune that the state had sent its voter roll, which includes information on the approximately 18.4 million voters registered in Texas, to the Justice Department on Dec. 23.\u00a0<\/p>\n The state included identifiable information about voters, including dates of birth, driver\u2019s license numbers and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, Pierce said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Experts and state officials around the country\u00a0have raised concerns<\/a>\u00a0over the legality of the Justice Department\u2019s effort to obtain states\u2019 voter rolls and whether it could compromise voter privacy protections. The Justice Department has said it is entitled to the data under federal law, and withholding it interferes with its ability to exercise oversight and enforce federal election laws.<\/p>\n The department has\u00a0now sued 23 states and Washington, D.C.<\/a>, for declining to voluntarily turn over their voter rolls. Those states, which include some led by officials of both political parties, have generally argued that states are responsible for voter registration and are barred by state and federal law from sharing certain private information about voters. In an\u00a0interview with \u201cThe Charlie Kirk Show\u201d last month<\/a>, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said 13 states, including Texas, had voluntarily agreed to turn over their voter rolls.<\/p>\n In\u00a0a letter<\/a>\u00a0to Nelson dated Friday and obtained by Votebeat and The Texas Tribune, the Democratic National Committee said the move to hand over the voter roll could violate federal election law.<\/p>\n DNC Chair Ken Martin said the turnover of such data is tantamount to a \u201cbig government power grab\u201d and would invite privacy violations and could result in eligible voters being kicked off the rolls. The DNC, he said in a statement, \u201cwon\u2019t stand idly by as the Trump DOJ tries to get access to Texas voters\u2019 sensitive information.\u201d<\/p>\n In its letter, Daniel Freeman, the DNC\u2019s litigation director, requested records related to the Justice Department\u2019s request, and warned the party could take further action.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some election officials and voting rights watchdog groups have raised concerns about what the Justice Department intends to do with the information provided by the states, with some suggesting it may be used to create\u00a0a national database of voters<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Votebeat and The Texas Tribune have asked the Texas Secretary of State\u2019s Office for a signed copy of the agreement between the state and the Justice Department, known as a memorandum of understanding, governing how the sharing of the voter data would work and steps the state has agreed to take in response to any questions about voter eligibility raised by the Justice Department. The state has not yet released it.<\/p>\n In\u00a0a proposed memorandum of understanding<\/a>\u00a0sent to Wisconsin officials last month and publicly released by state officials, the Justice Department said that upon receiving the state\u2019s voter data, it would check the state\u2019s voter roll for \u201clist maintenance issues, insufficiencies, anomalies or concerns.\u201d The department would then notify the state and give it 45 days to correct any problems. The state would then agree to resubmit the voter roll to the department. Wisconsin declined the agreement, and the Justice Department has\u00a0since<\/a>\u00a0sued the state.<\/p>\n In his letter to Nelson, Freeman identified two potential legal violations associated with some of those clauses, though acknowledged he didn\u2019t yet know whether Texas had signed such an agreement and asked for records.\u00a0<\/p>\n Freeman wrote that the 45-day removal period as laid out in the public versions of the memorandum would run afoul of a provision in the National Voter Registration Act that lays out specific conditions, such as having missed two elections after receiving a notice from the state, for states to remove registered voters from the rolls.<\/p>\n Freeman also wrote that federal law also bars states from doing systemic voter removals from the rolls within 90 days of a primary or general election. Because Texas has an upcoming March 3 primary, May 26 runoff and Nov. 3 general election, the state cannot conduct such list maintenance until after the runoff, Freeman wrote. The 90-day moratorium would then kick in again on Aug. 6, ahead of the November election.<\/p>\n Texas agreed to the memorandum of understanding and released the data, but\u00a0told the department<\/a>\u00a0that it did so with the understanding it wouldn\u2019t \u201climit or affect the duties, responsibilities, and rights\u201d of the state under either the NVRA or other federal laws, according to\u00a0two letters<\/a>\u00a0the Texas Secretary of State\u2019s Office sent the Justice Department in December and released to Votebeat and The Texas Tribune.<\/p>\n