Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen has not yet responded to a request to turn over state voter registration data to the U.S. Department of Justice, the state’s top election official said Monday.
Also on Monday, Evnen was named a defendant in a lawsuit seeking to bar the secretary from fulfilling the request of the Trump administration, which requested detailed voter files from dozens of states.
Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, asked Evnen in a Sept. 8 letter to turn over information about voters by Sept. 22.
As part of the request, the department sought the “full name, date of birth, residential address, his or her state driver’s license number or the last four digits” of a voter’s Social Security number.
Evnen forwarded the letter to Attorney General Mike Hilgers to review and provide legal advice, according to Taborek-Potter.
It’s not clear if that review had concluded by Monday’s deadline.
A spokeswoman for the secretary of state told the Journal Star late Monday afternoon no information has been provided to the federal government.
“Our office has not provided any information in response to the September 8 letter,” Rani Toborek-Potter wrote in an email. “We have no further comment at this time.”
At the same time, Evnen was named in a lawsuit filed by Common Cause, a watchdog group that advocates for voting rights and limiting money in elections, and Dawn Essink of Omaha.
According to the complaint, which was filed in Lancaster County District Court on Monday morning, Evnen and other state and local election officials are barred from making copies of Nebraska’s voter registration file except for list maintenance or certain law enforcement purposes.
“Although state and local election officials can make and use copies of the voter file in certain limited circumstances, they cannot disclose those copies to third party requesters, including the federal government,” the complaint states.
The federal government’s request is not related to list maintenance, does not specify a law enforcement purpose, and “improperly requests access to the list via the internet,” attorneys Daniel Gutman, Alexander Arkfeld and Sydney Hayes argued on behalf of Common Cause and Essink.
The lawsuit also argues the Justice Department’s demand seeks personal identifying information protected by state law, such as birth date and Social Security numbers, and could compromise other information like addresses and phone numbers of victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
Dhillon, in her letter to Evnen, argued that state laws protecting the release of such information were superseded by federal law.
“In charging the Attorney General with enforcement of the voter registration requirements in the (Help America Vote Act) and in the (National Voter Registration Act), Congress plainly intended that DOJ be able to conduct an independent review of each state’s list,” she wrote.
“Any statewide prohibitions are clearly preempted by federal law.”
The complaint disputes Dhillon’s characterization, however, saying nothing in those laws authorizes “the wholesale transfer of Nebraska’s complete voter birthdates, driver’s license numbers, or Social Security numbers.”
The NVRA allows limited inspection of list-maintenance activities, but does not mandate the release of potentially sensitive personally identifiable information, and HAVA sets requirements for voter databases, but does not contain a mechanism for that info to be turned over to the federal government, the complaint argues.
“In short, the statutory authorities DOJ invokes do not extend to the sweeping demand it has issued Nebraska,” Common Cause and Essink said.
Nebraska allows for public inspection of certain voter information — including names and addresses — for a fee. Those files are accessed by political parties, public research firms, and others.
State statute also allows voters to have their phone numbers, email addresses and, in some cases, residential addresses, withheld, which other voting rights organizations said struck a reasonable balance.
The lawsuit said the Justice Department’s request threatened to put Nebraskans’ “most sensitive data at risk of unlawful disclosure,” and sought to have a court issue a temporary restraining order to prevent Evnen from turning it over.
Lancaster County District Court Judge Lori Maret was assigned the civil case.
Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com.
On Bluesky @chrisdunker.bsky.social
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