The Trump administration may be losing its fight over access to Oregon voters’ private data.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Eugene said he’d tentatively decided to dismiss the federal government’s lawsuit.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued Oregon in September to get an unredacted list of its registered voters, including their birthdays, drivers license numbers, and part of their Social Security numbers.
James Thomas Tucker, a lawyer for the DOJ, told the court Wednesday that the U.S. wants to know whether the state is properly maintaining its voter list.
The DOJ hasn’t accused the state of any specific violations beyond withholding the data.
However, Tucker pointed to alleged abnormalities in the state’s data: an unusually high number of registered voters, and a low rate of people being removed from the list compared to other states.
“If you see rabbit tracks, that doesn’t mean you’ve seen a rabbit,” Tucker told the court Wednesday. “But if you follow the tracks, you’re likely to find a rabbit.”
However, Thomas Castelli—an attorney for the state of Oregon—argued that handing over the data would violate state privacy protections.
Castelli also said the private information isn’t necessary to determine whether the state is doing its legally required “reasonable effort” to maintain its voter list.
Castelli said the DOJ may be able to get a redacted voter list with information that’s already public record, such as names, home address, party affiliation, and birth year.
Branden Lewiston, a lawyer for third-party intervenors siding with the state, raised concerns that the unredacted data could be used to create a National Voting Registry—which the DOJ’s lawyer strongly denied.
Wednesday’s arguments centered on whether the Help America Vote Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1960 forced the state to offer up this information, and whether the federal government had established “basis and purpose” for their demands.
The decision
U.S. District Court Judge Mustafa Kasubhai, a Biden appointee, presided over the hearing.
During the discussion, Kasubhai said he was “cautious and doubtful” that the unredacted list would help the federal government in determining compliance.
In his closing statements, Kasubhai said the federal government lacked statutory authority to force the unredacted information to be released.
Instead, he said a redacted list would strike a better balance, protecting individual privacy and the need for states to manage their own voting systems.
“The decentralization is not a glitch but a necessary feature... to ensure the proper election of federal officials,” said Kasubhai.
Kasubhai said he had tentatively sided with the defense’s request to dismiss the lawsuit. He said he could still change his mind, and a final written decision would be forthcoming.
Reactions
In a written statement Wednesday evening, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read celebrated the tentative decision.
“This is a big win for Oregonians’ privacy and the rule of law,” he said. “The federal government tried to abuse their power to force me to break my oath of office and hand over your private data. I stood up to them and said no. Now, the court sided with us. Tonight, we proved, once again, we have the power to push back and win.”
KLCC has reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice for comment.
