Judge rules Oregon won't need to hand over unredacted voter rolls to Trump admin

(CN) — A federal judge overseeing a legal battle between the federal government and Oregon over its voter list tentatively ruled in favor of the state Wednesday in its bid to withhold the data.

U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai engaged in a back-and-forth with attorneys during a daylong hearing held on Oregon’s motion to dismiss. The federal government sought unredacted voter information from the Beaver State, including voters’ full dates of birth and driver’s license numbers.

Oregon has said the law doesn’t require the disclosure of that data. Instead, it pointed to a publicly available list anyone can access.

“The issue here is, do we have to hand over this list to the federal government?” said attorney Thomas H. Castelli, with Oregon’s Justice Department.

At the end of the hearing, Kasubhai, a Joe Biden appointee, determined the law didn’t require Oregon to hand over an unredacted copy of its voter registration list. The judge called the ruling granting the motion to dismiss tentative, saying he’d issue a written ruling later.

The Trump administration argues in its suit that the U.S. Department of Justice must ensure states properly maintain their voter registration lists and stop ineligible voters from remaining on those lists. It says Oregon hasn’t complied with the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act by failing to hand over the proper information.

Castelli said it can provide a redacted voter registration list. However, privacy laws prohibit it from handing over unredacted lists, and no law gives the federal government special access to a complete list, he said.

Under questioning by the judge, Castelli said the public voter list includes someone’s full name, year of birth, address, phone number, if they voted in prior elections and party affiliation, if any. It does not include a voter’s full date of birth, driver’s license number and last four digits of their Social Security number.

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said in a statement his office offered the public list to the Trump administration. The administration filed suit against Oregon in reply.

Arguing for the federal government, attorney James Thomas Tucker said Oregon failed to provide the information in formal requests.

That request, a letter sent in July to state officials, noted that Oregon had reported it removed some 4,400 voters out of over 3 million for failing to respond to a confirmation notice after not voting in two consecutive federal elections. It was the lowest number of removals in that category nationwide.

Additionally, federal officials in the letter said Oregon didn’t report each county’s number of inactive voters. They asked what processes the state had for determining if a voter should be classified as inactive.

“It’s evidence that’s inconsistent with reasonable list maintenance in other states,” Tucker said.

The personal information is needed as an assurance that people aren’t improperly removed from voter rolls, he added.

Read responded in August, saying he saw no federal authority for the request.

Officials determined the need for personal information existed after the 2000 election revealed issues, Tucker said. In heavily populated states, some people can share names and even dates of birth. People’s personal information, like precise dates of birth and driver’s license numbers, will ensure mistaken removals are prevented.

“To make sure we’re removing the right voter by cross-checking it,” Tucker added.

Attorney Branden Lewiston, arguing for Our Oregon — an advocacy group for economic and social justice that’s intervened in the suit on Oregon’s side — said the U.S. Constitution gives states power over elections and voter registration. The federal Justice Department has limited oversight tools, Lewiston said.

“Our position here is that [the Justice Department] has exceeded the bounds of those limits in this demand,” Lewiston added.

Lewiston also questioned how an unredacted voter registration list would help the federal government ensure proper maintenance of the lists. He suggested that the federal government wants the information from all states, enabling it to identify people nationwide it wants to exclude from voting.

“That’s a dark theory,” Kasubhai said.

Tucker denied the federal government had any intention to create such a nationwide list.

Oregon isn’t the only state the Trump administration has targeted for voter list information; according to the Brennan Center for Justice, over 40 states have received requests for complete voter roll data. The federal government has sued over 20 states for failing to provide that information.