The League of Women Voters of New York State, joined by the Campaign Legal Center and the Brennan Center for Justice, has filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice seeking access to New York’s full voter registration database.
The DOJ is requesting sensitive personal data, including driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers—information voting rights advocates say the federal government has no legitimate reason to collect.
Erica Smitka, executive director of the League of Women Voters of NYS, told Radio Catskill the move is about protecting voters and trust in elections.
“The League has been working for 100 years to protect the rights of voters,” Smitka said. “When we register voters, we sometimes mention that their information is safe and secure under New York law. There’s really no justification for the federal government to demand this access.”
Smitka said misuse of the data could fuel false claims about election fraud, target political opponents, or pressure states to remove voters based on incomplete information. She also flagged privacy concerns tied to the DOJ’s collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security.
Voter data in New York is protected under state and federal law, including the Privacy Act. “Federal law authorizes states to control voter databases and does not require the release of sensitive personal information,” Smitka said.
The filing, made Oct. 24, follows a similar intervention in Maine. Smitka said the League is working closely with other voting rights organizations to ensure privacy protections remain strong.
“We are here, showing up in communities, running voter registration drives, and pursuing legal action to protect voters’ rights,” she said. “We won’t stop doing this work to keep our democracy strong.”
For more information on voter privacy and election resources, visit lwv.org or vote411.org.
Image: The US Department of Justice (DoJ), Washington DC. (Credit: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)