Minnesota federal judge blocks DOJ demand for unredacted voter registration data

On Monday, a federal judge for the U.S. District of Minnesota dismissed a lawsuit from the federal government demanding that the Minnesota Secretary of State hand over all unredacted voter rolls.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office had filed a motion to dismiss on behalf of the state and Secretary of State Steve Simon, which was granted.

The lawsuit claimed the federal government was entitled to a complete, unredacted list of Minnesota voter registration rolls, which included each voter’s full name, date of birth, address, last four digits of their Social Security number and each voter’s full driver’s license number.

The U.S. attorney general claimed the government was privy to the information under Title III of the Civil Rights Act (CRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. The judge rejected both claims.

The judge said in the order regarding the HAVA claim tha...