West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner announced that the state will not provide unredacted voter registration records to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The DOJ has asked nearly all states to submit election records and data, including voter registration lists containing driver’s license numbers, dates of birth, addresses and Social Security numbers.
Warner sent a letter to the DOJ on Wednesday stating that the federal statutes cited do not require the state to comply and that West Virginia law protects voters’ sensitive information.
“West Virginians entrust me with their sensitive personal information. Turning it over to the federal government, which is contrary to State law, will simply not happen,” Warner stated Wednesday. “State law is clear: voter lists are available in a redacted format from my office, but I’ll not be turning over any West Virginian’s protected information.”
The federal government has filed lawsuits against more than 20 states and Washington, D.C., after they declined to release voter files.
On Tuesday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit involving Michigan, ruling that no federal law grants the DOJ authority to demand unredacted voter registration records.
“The DOJ claims it wants to enforce voter list maintenance laws and receiving West Virginians’ personal information is the way to do it,” Warner stated. “I dare say that the DOJ cannot do a better job than the 55 West Virginia county clerks who have accomplished the herculean task of refreshing more than half of the State’s voter rolls.”
Warner said West Virginia has 1,195,305 registered voters.
Since 2017, officials have lawfully removed more than 400,000 outdated, abandoned, out-of-state or otherwise ineligible registrations. Over the past nine years, the state has added more than 350,000 new voter registrations.