Months later, DOJ lawsuit to obtain Washington voter rolls can move forward

It took the federal government months to properly serve attorneys for Washington in the Trump administration’s litigation to force the state to turn over its voter rolls.

But now the lawsuit filed in December can finally move forward.

Secretary of State Steve Hobbs told the Trump administration last year that he would be willing to provide public information from voter records. But he wouldn’t hand over dates of birth, driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of social security numbers. He wrote that information is protected under Washington law.

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“The DOJ has not specified what voters’ private data will be used for, how that data will be kept secure, and whether that data will be shared with other federal agencies,” secretary of state’s office spokesperson Stefanie Randolph said in an email.

As it has in other states, the U.S. Department of Justice took its case to the courts. The lawsuit alleges Hobbs’ decision violated the federal Civil Rights Act of 1960.

The law states that election officials must provide certain voter information to the U.S. attorney general if it is demanded. It gives federal courts the power to compel states to hand over the records.

The Department of Justice’s top voting rights attorney took fault for the delays, blaming his lack of familiarity with how to serve state officials in Washington. Hobbs, who had said he only heard about the complaint through the media, is the defendant in the Justice Department’s lawsuit.

The lawyer, Eric Neff, also misread a judge’s order seeking an explanation on why the federal government hadn’t served Hobbs yet, as giving more time to serve him.

Neff is a former California prosecutor whose tenure ended there after accusations of bias in a case against a voting software company targeted by conspiracy theorists who falsely claim the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

The Justice Department finally served the state last month.

The state has until May 12 to respond, attorney general’s office spokesperson Mike Faulk said. Faulk declined to comment on the saga to get the case started, saying only, “I think it speaks for itself.”

“The improper handling of a lawsuit dealing with something as important as voters’ protected information, and a lack of transparency in how that information would be used, does not give us confidence that voter data would be handled with the care it requires,” said Randolph, from Hobbs’ office.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department asked a judge to order Washington officials to explain why they shouldn’t be forced to provide voter records.

Court rules state that a judge can dismiss cases if the defendant isn’t served within 90 days of filing. Despite failing to meet this requirement, Judge Kymberly Evanson is allowing the case to move forward, writing in an order late last month that she “prefers to resolve cases on their merits.”

Though she did chastise the Justice Department, which noted it hasn’t had these issues in its similar lawsuits against states across the country.

“Plaintiff should have considered the ‘unique requirements of litigation’ in this district before instituting this case, rather than after it missed deadlines,” Evanson wrote. “In any event, the Court trusts that Plaintiff will abide by its promise to be diligent in adhering to the Local Rules and Court orders in the future.”

The federal government has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., as part of its demands for voter data, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Most are governed by Democrats, but the list also includes Republican-led states like Georgia, Oklahoma, and Utah. A few of the cases have been dismissed, including in California and Oregon.

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The Brennan Center is helping represent advocacy organizations seeking to join Washington state as defendants in the Justice Department lawsuit.

A dozen states have either provided or said they would give their full voter registration lists, according to the Brennan Center. In a court filing Tuesday, Neff said it was 17 states.

The Trump administration has said it wants the records to ensure states are removing ineligible voters from their rolls and aren’t processing voter registration applications without verifying the applicants’ identity, in compliance with federal laws. But many critics fear the information will be shared with the Department of Homeland Security to fuel President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Hobbs is also concerned that collecting the data could violate privacy laws.

When the Justice Department filed the lawsuit here in December, Gov. Bob Ferguson said he was “very confident we’ll be successful in court.”

It’s not the state’s only court battle with Trump over elections. Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and other states sued the Trump administration last week over the president’s executive order to build a national voter list and curb mail-in voting.

This story was originally published by the Washington State Standard.