West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner confirmed the state will not hand over registered voters’ personal information to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The DOJ has asked nearly all states to provide election records and data, including voter registration lists that contain driver’s license numbers, dates of birth, addresses and Social Security numbers.
On Wednesday, Warner sent a letter to the DOJ explaining that the federal statutes cited do not require compliance and that state 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 sued more than 20 states and Washington, D.C., for refusing to release voter files.
On Tuesday, a federal judge threw out a Michigan lawsuit, ruling that no federal law grants the DOJ authority to demand unredacted voter registration files.
“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 currently has 1,195,305 registered voters.
Since 2017, officials have lawfully canceled more than 400,000 outdated, abandoned, out-of-state or ineligible registration records. Over the past nine years, they have added more than 350,000 new voter registrations.