West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner’s office has asked a federal judge to dismiss the U.S. Department of Justice’s request for unredacted state voter registration information.
An April 29 memorandum says “Secretary Warner cooperated as much as West Virginia law would allow him to, but he has explained that state law does not allow him to release the list without redactions.”
When Warner’s office offered a redacted list, the DOJ sued the state. Earlier this month, the feds moved to compel the state to release the information that includes birth dates, addresses, driver’s license numbers and/or the last four digits of Social Security numbers.
“This same story is playing out in dozens of States across the country,” Wednesday’s memorandum states. “The United States asks a state to turn over unredacted voter lists; the state refuses; the government sues. But the government’s suits have not been successful.
“At least five federal courts have dismissed complaints nearly identical to this one.”
In February, the DOJ sued the state after Warner previously had refused to turn over the data. The DOJ has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking similar information. Five federal courts have dismissed the DOJ suits. Those are in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Rhode Island.
Warner’s office says the DOJ request lacks a specific factual basis and seeks a pretextual purpose related to immigration enforcement rather than voting rights.
“Though DOJ initially claimed the list-maintenance-review purpose, it seems the government now wants to use the voter list for immigration enforcement reasons,” the filing states. “Demanding unredacted voter lists for this use would be outside the Civil Rights Act’s purview.”
Warner’s office also says the information is from internal databases that are exempt from being provided to the federal government. The memo says sharing the information would violate state and federal privacy laws.
The DOJ says the Civil Rights Act of 1960 provides the SOS office with the authority to provide federal election records.
But in a separate April 29 filing, Warner’s office says the law “does not greenlight fishing expeditions.”
“Nor does it reduce the secretary to a spectator instead of a defendant,” Warner’s response to the DOJ’s motion to compel states. “And the court is not a clerk checking whether the correct paperwork was filed. …
“The United States is mistaken.”
Warner’s response says the federal government has taken “some surprising positions.”
“For instance, our judiciary employs an adversarial system where procedure protects due process rights,” the filing states. “But the government believes that Title III bars the secretary from ‘using any procedural device’ to challenge its demand.
“Likewise, Title III allows the federal government to obtain certain records only if the request contains a proper ‘statement of the basis and the purpose’ of the request. But the government believes that even a facially deficient request may not be ‘challenge(d).’ Title III also limits the government to obtain ‘all records and papers which come into (the secretary’s) possession relating to any application, registration, payment of poll tax or other act requisite to voting.’
“But the government believes that ‘all’ means anything and everything relating to voting.”
Warner’s office is being represented by West Virginia Solicitor General Michael Williams and Assistant Solicitor General Caleb A. Seckman. U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston is handling the case.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 2:26-cv-00156
