SALT LAKE CITY — The U.S. Department of Justice is asking a federal judge to force Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson to hand over Utah voters' personal information.
In a motion to compel filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, the DOJ said it wanted Utahns' sensitive personal information "to assess Utah’s compliance with the Help America Vote Act (“HAVA”) and the National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”)."
"That demand was not met," Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general over the DOJ's civil rights division, said in the filing.
The DOJ sued Lt. Gov. Henderson in February, seeking Utah voter roll information. She has so far resisted, as have numerous other states, arguing that the information — which includes birth dates, driver license numbers, addresses, and last four digits of Social Security numbers — is not allowed to be released under state or federal laws. The Lt. Governor's Office, which oversees elections in Utah, has only offered to provide what is publicly available.
Dhillon argued in the motion filed in federal court that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 allows them to see Utah's voter roll information.
"Its approach is one of 'trust but verify,' and ensures that federal elections are conducted transparently," he wrote.
U.S. District Court Judge David Barlow signaled he would address the motion to compel in a notation on the court's docket on Monday, but did not give a timeline for any ruling. Judge Barlow recently allowed the NAACP to intervene in the case. The civil rights group is siding with Lt. Gov. Henderson. The League of Women Voters of Utah has also sought to intervene in the case. The ACLU of Utah, which is representing the League, has said the information the DOJ is seeking could be used to target people and is "creating a national database on all of us who are eligible to vote."
Read the DOJ's filing here:
