More Groups Seek to Join as Defendants in DOJ State Voter Data Cases
Various groups and individuals this week asked to join legal battles between states and the DOJ over the federal government’s request that the states turn over sensitive voter registration data. DOJ is suing a handful of states over their refusal to submit voter rolls (see 2512030049).
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In case 1:25-cv-01193 against New Mexico, two individuals and grassroots voter engagement organization Common Cause have asked to intervene. They said they have “an extremely strong interest” in the case, as the federal government is requesting “unfettered and total access to the most sensitive aspects of New Mexico’s non-public voter data,” which may then be “used to harass and potentially disenfranchise voters.”
In the same court filing, the proposed intervenors attached a proposed motion to dismiss the case, on the grounds that DOJ “failed to disclose the basis and purpose of its request for the data.” If permitted to join the case as defendants, Common Cause and the individuals will ask the U.S. District Court for New Mexico to drop the case.
The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of New Mexico are representing the proposed intervenors. "New Mexico voters' right to privacy is protected by state and federal law, and the federal government is jeopardizing that right by seeking access to their sensitive personal information," said Megan Keenan, staff attorney with the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, in a release Friday.
"The DOJ's sweeping demand for private voter data -- reportedly to build an unauthorized national database and enable mass voter challenges -- threatens" the right to privacy and the right to vote free from challenge and intimidation, added María Martínez Sánchez, legal director at ACLU of New Mexico.
Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar granted a motion to intervene in a text-only order Friday.
The New Mexico Alliance for Retired Americans also requested to be added to the case on Dec. 12, which the district court granted in a text-only order on Monday. The Rhode Island and Maryland chapters of the same Alliance previously asked to be included in their states’ version of DOJ suits (see 2512110005 and 2512120024).
Common Cause also asked to be added to the Maryland suit, case 1:25-cv-03934, along with three individuals and the nonprofit Out for Justice. They argued their “rights are at risk” if the states are compelled to turn over sensitive voting data, as it has been “widely reported that the United States will use this data to build an unauthorized national voter database and to target voters for potential challenges and disenfranchisement.”
The coalition also asked the U.S. District Court for Maryland to dismiss the case in a document almost identical to the proposed motion to dismiss in New Mexico.
Previously, the voter mobilization group Common Power asked to join the Washington state voter data case (see 2512110050), and the ACLU and ACLU of Rhode Island motioned to join their state case (see 2512090055).
A coalition of 16 democratic attorneys general asked to file an amicus brief in the DOJ suit against California, filed in September (see 2512010046).