The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has said it intends to contact all 50 states about their compliance with federal voting law, a national association of state election officials told Democracy Docket.
“As states recently began to receive letters on the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and Help America Vote Act (HAVA) from the U.S. Department of Justice, NASS staff reached out to hopefully provide members with additional information and context,” Maria Benson, a spokesperson for the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) said in a statement. “DOJ staff told NASS staff that all states would be contacted eventually on NVRA and HAVA matters. We passed along this information to members.”
“NASS staff has also asked DOJ to join a future NASS Elections Committee virtual meeting to address questions on these letters,” Benson added.
In recent weeks, letters sent by DOJ’s Civil Rights division to numerous states of all political stripes have asked for sensitive voter roll data, which DOJ has said is needed to ensure compliance with the NVRA and HAVA. The inquiries appear intended to gather information that could boost the Trump administration’s hunt for illegal voting.
“Most of the letters are very vague about why the DOJ is asking for this data,” Justin Levitt, a constitutional law scholar and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s Civil Rights division, as well as a former voting adviser to former President Joe Biden, told Democracy Docket. “Most of these letters cite generally HAVA and the NVRA. That’s not good enough. HAVA and the NVRA have very particular requirements for state and local jurisdictions.”…