LWVWA President Karen Crowley

“Thrilled and heartened” is how LWVWA Karen Crowley’s described her feelings last week following Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs’ decision to decline a federal Department of Justice request for protected voter registration information.

“We applaud Secretary Hobbs’ very reasonable decision,” said Crowley. “The secretary asked significant and appropriate questions, and we appreciate his strong response.”

A week ago, Crowley wrote Hobbs and requested that the secretary decline the request that Washington received from Justice for statewide voter registration fields.

Crowley said the request was based on League positions that procedures should provide the voter with a maximum of convenience, simplicity and efficiency “while ensuring that the requirements of secrecy, accuracy and impartiality are maintained," said Crowley.

“In our opinion,” Crowley wrote, “the request from the Department of Justice is an unwarranted intrusion into individual voter records and violates Washington state voter protections.”

In early September, Washington was one of two to three dozen states from which the DOJ asked for statewide voter registration files.  

The requested files included driver’s license numbers, full dates of birth and the last four digits of Social Security numbers, all information considered to be private. Justice officials confirmed they intended to share the information they received with the federal Department of Homeland Security, ostensibly to aid in that department’s immigration crack-down.

Meanwhile, in late September, the League of Women Voters of the United States, along with the state Leagues in Virginia and Louisiana and others filed a class action against the Trump administration’s creation of a massive database of information that the League and others believe federal officials will use to illegally open investigations and purge voter rolls.

Back in Washington state, Hobbs wrote, “As the chief elections officer of the state,I take very seriously the responsibility to safeguard highly personal voter information protected from disclosure under both Washington and federal law.”

He said the request “raises serious legal and privacy concerns.”

Hobbs’ letter also questioned Justice’s claims that various citations it identified do truly authorize the release of the private details.

In the past month, Justice has sued at least six states that have declined to provide the entirety of the information requested.

Hobbs closed by providing a link where Justice officials could request a copy of the information that has been determined to be public and appropriate to share.