A legal battle over voter registration data in Massachusetts has concluded with a significant setback for the Department of Justice. Judge Leo T. Sorokin, appointed during the Obama administration, dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Trump-era DOJ seeking full access to the state’s voter rolls.
The DOJ’s case, centered around enforcing Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, aimed to identify and remove ineligible voters – those deceased, non-citizens, or registered multiple times. The intention was to safeguard the integrity of elections by ensuring accurate and up-to-date voter lists across the nation.
Massachusetts Secretary of State William Francis Galvin resisted the federal demand for unredacted voter data, prompting the lawsuit. However, Judge Sorokin sided with Galvin, effectively halting the DOJ’s attempt to compel the release of the information.
The judge’s 13-page ruling hinged on a technicality: the DOJ’s initial request lacked a sufficient “statement of the basis” for needing the records. The letter from the Attorney General outlined the *purpose* of the review, but offered no specific evidence or concerns to justify the sweeping demand for the entire state’s voter database.
The court deemed the request “facially deficient,” dismissing the complaint and any related motions. This decision effectively allows Massachusetts to maintain control over its voter information, at least for now.
This outcome represents the fourth loss for the DOJ in a series of similar cases nationwide, with no victories to date across thirty active legal challenges. The Department has been aggressively pursuing access to voter rolls in numerous states, both those with Democratic and Republican leadership.
In states that *have* complied with DOJ requests, investigations have revealed alarming discrepancies. These include a substantial number of ineligible voters and instances of non-citizens appearing on voter rolls, highlighting potential vulnerabilities in election administration.
Recent reviews, encompassing 50 to 60 million voter records, have uncovered hundreds of thousands of problematic registrations. Disturbingly, over 300,000 deceased individuals were still listed as active voters, and tens of thousands of non-citizens had reportedly cast ballots in federal elections.
The DOJ has begun referring thousands of potential non-citizen voting cases for federal prosecution, with some investigations already underway in U.S. Attorney’s offices. These developments underscore the ongoing efforts to address and rectify irregularities within the nation’s voter registration system.
