SPOKANE, Wash. – Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs has raised concerns over a request from the Department of Justice (DOJ) for sensitive voter information.
Hobbs noted that while the public can obtain some election information online or at county elections offices, the DOJ is seeking data not typically accessible to the public.
Specifically, Hobbs stated that the DOJ wants driver’s license numbers, the last four digits of Social Security numbers and birthdays of every voter in Washington.
A statement from the DOJ indicated that this information is intended for screening ineligible voter entries.
Here is the full statement:
“Enforcing the Nation’s elections laws is a priority in this administration and in the Civil Rights Division. Congress gave the Justice Department authority under the NVRA, HAVA, the Civil Rights Act, and other statutes to ensure that states have proper voter registration procedures and programs to maintain clean voter rolls containing only eligible voters in federal elections. The recent request by the Civil Rights Division for state voter rolls is pursuant to that statutory authority, and the responsive data is being screened for ineligible voter entries.”
However, Hobbs expressed skepticism about the necessity of such restricted information for this purpose.
Hobbs added that he has heard from outside sources that the DOJ might use this data to pursue non-citizens. When asked about this, the DOJ declined to comment further.
Here is their full response:
“No comment beyond the previous statement, thanks.”
Hobbs mentioned that his team is examining the legal aspects of the request.
“Right now, we are looking at the letter to see what we are allowed to do. And we obviously don’t want to break the law, but their state laws and their federal laws, and I don’t even think that I can even give up this information because the state legislature passed a bill saying that we have to keep that,” he said.
Hobbs has less than two weeks to respond to the DOJ’s request and is working to gather more information before issuing a response. You can see the full letter from the DOJ below.
