Voters at Anchorage City Hall wait in line to cast their ballots on Nov. 4, 2024, the day before Election Day. City Hall, in downtown Anchorage, was one of the designated early voting sites in the state's largest city. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
A group of state and national civil rights groups has filed a lawsuit against the Alaska Division of Elections challenging the decision to share Alaska’s voter rolls with the U.S. Department of Justice as unconstitutional.
The lawsuit filed on Wednesday charges the division with violating the right to privacy enshrined in the Alaska Constitution when officials complied with a Department of Justice’s request and turned over a copy of Alaska’s voter rolls, as well as signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to remove voters the federal government identifies as ineligible.
The lawsuit names Lieutenant Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and Carol Beecher, director of the Division of Elections, in their official state capacities.
Alaska is one of 12 states that has complied or said it will comply with the DOJ demand issued last July. In August, Alaska shared a copy of voter rolls including previously confidential information — voters’ full names, dates of birth, residential addresses and drivers’ license numbers or partial social security numbers.
The Alaska Beacon first reported on the state signing the agreement in February. The news prompted public alarm and debate around confidentiality of voter information, purpose of collecting voter data, and federal overreach in state elections. Lawmakers questioned state elections officials in legislative hearings.
The lawsuit is filed in Anchorage Superior Court and brought by the League of Women Voters of Alaska, and the Alaska Black Caucus, non-profit membership voting and civil rights organizations. They are represented by the ACLU of Alaska, the ACLU national chapter, the Voting Rights Project and Electronic Privacy Information Center.
“The right to vote and our right to privacy are two core values held dear by Alaskans,” said Eric Glatt, legal director for the ACLU of Alaska, in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “Rather than fiercely defending the rights of Alaska’s voters, our Division of Elections acceded to federal overreach. Now, we are asking the court to step in and ensure that DOE upholds its constitutional and legal obligations to Alaskans.”
The lawsuit highlights that the Department of Justice is sharing voter information with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to search for noncitizens and to compile a national database.The lawsuit alleges that is in order to “conduct criminal and immigration investigations.”
Plaintiffs argue the state’s agreement to remove voters the federal government has found to be ineligible and resubmit an updated list to DOJ within 45 days violates constitutional due process rights. They argue that “by giving DOJ the power to select which Alaskans have the right to vote and by obligating Defendants to purge voters from the voter list without any stated basis in law or process to challenge such an action.”
A spokesperson with the Alaska Department of Law, Sam Curtis, said the department had not yet been served, and so he declined to comment on its specific claims on Wednesday. Curtis said the issue has been addressed in public hearings and the state’s cooperation with the federal government complies with federal and state laws, in particular those allowing the state to share confidential information “for authorized government purposes.”
In a Mar. 19 letter to members of the Legislature by Alaska Attorney General Designee Stephen Cox defended the state’s decision, saying the disclosure was authorized under the National Voter Registration Act and other state elections laws to permit sharing otherwise confidential voter information.
“The memorandum of understanding (“MOU”) with DOJ limits the use of the information to federal voting-rights enforcement and voter-list maintenance and imposes strict confidentiality and data-security requirements,” he wrote.
“The division’s actions also reflect Alaska’s longstanding practice of cooperating with DOJ’s Civil Rights Division across administrations,” he added.
The Trump administration has sued thirty states and Washington D.C. for refusing to comply, according to a tracker by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, a critic of the Trump administration’s requests.
In the Alaska lawsuit, plaintiffs are asking the court to void the state’s agreement with the federal government, and beyond the scope of the defendants’ authority.
They’re also asking the court to grant permanent injunctive relief and require the state to make “reasonable efforts” to ensure the Department of Justice immediately destroys all copies of Alaska’s voter rolls previously shared.
Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski has been working on elections issues for several years and was a main driver of elections legislation passed this year that’s now on Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s desk awaiting a final decision. The bill aims to streamline the state’s voting process and update voter rolls. He said the lawsuit was appropriate.
“I support it. I think it’s a good thing,” Wielechowski said Wednesday. “I think the department should have never sent that information. They probably did violate the law.”
Wielechowski said there is discussion among state lawmakers about filing an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit.
“The big concern was that there were going to be Alaskans who were taken off the voter rolls. And the division is turning over control and running of state elections to the federal government. And state elections have always been in the purview of the states,” he said. “So I think there’s tremendous concern in Alaska.”
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Courtesy of Alaska Beacon
