NEWS
NM judge considering federal demand for personal state voter data
Nationwide effort by federal Department of Justice under scrutiny
Published
Modified
The Trump administration's attempt to collect sensitive voter registration records around the country played out in sa国际传媒官网网页入口 federal court Tuesday as lawyers for New Mexico voters decried the demand as illegal.
The U.S. Department of Justice has sued New Mexico along with some 29 other states seeking unredacted voter registration lists that include the last four digits of Social Security numbers, dates of birth and driver's license information.
So far, federal courts in five states have dismissed DOJ lawsuits demanding such records.
Senior U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera of sa国际传媒官网网页入口 rendered no decision Tuesday. And after more than two hours of legal arguments, there was no consensus as to what the requested personal identifying information would be used for.
James Thomas Tucker, an attorney representing the U.S. Department of Justice, told the judge that the voter registration information is necessary to evaluate New Mexico's compliance with two federal voting rights laws.
"It's a trust but verify approach," Tucker said.
Tucker also said the DOJ wants to know more about New Mexico's relatively low rate of removals from the rolls due to duplicate voter registrations in 2024.
Lawyers fighting the DOJ requests around the country maintain there are other reasons for the federal request, suggesting the data would be used to compile a national voter list, for immigration enforcement, or for DOGE-like efforts aimed at cutting federal budgets.
Herrera had questions about whether state and federal privacy laws would bar such a data release.
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver told the DOJ last September that she is required by state law to redact Social Security numbers, full dates of birth and driver's license numbers from voter registration records before they are made available for inspection. She didn't attend Tuesday's hearing.
"This is not authorized by any law, and would cause the Secretary of State to violate the law," argued Anjana Samant, an attorney representing the state agency. After the hearing, Samant said this is the first time in at least 20 years that the DOJ has demanded such data from New Mexico.
She added that New Mexico is in full compliance with its voter roll list maintenance as required by law.
In suing New Mexico, the DOJ cites Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, arguing the law grants the attorney general of the United States the sweeping power to obtain these records.
But the Civil Rights Act requires a statement of "the basis and the purpose" for the request, which lawyers for the states say the DOJ has failed to provide in its request for records.
"I didn't see any reference to the basis (for the request)," said Herrera on Tuesday.
Tucker said the DOJ was willing to supply such a statement, but attorneys for Common Cause and the New Mexico Alliance of Retired Americans told the judge that wouldn't cure the DOJ's flawed request.
"The DOJ is trying to get the private information of every single registered voter in New Mexico and every single voter in the United States," said Alliance attorney Joshua Abbuhl at the hearing.
William Hughes, representing Common Cause, said the DOJ's request "has a real chilling effect on voters." If they know their personal information will be disseminated, Hughes added, "they will be more hesitant to register to vote."
