WASHINGTON, DC – On behalf of two Maryland residents, Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE) has issued a litigation notice to the Maryland State Board of Elections highlighting violations of the National Voter Registration Act, the First Amendment, and state law. In particular, the State Board of Elections has adopted illegal policies that block citizens from accessing the state’s voter list if they intend to use the information to identify illegal activity concerning the voting process.
“Sunshine laws enable citizens to see how their government operates and empower them to advocate for improvements. Maryland’s efforts to restrict citizens’ use of public information to improve the accuracy and integrity of its registration rolls violates federal and state law and undermines good government. States should welcome citizen efforts to help them properly maintain their voter rolls in accordance with state and federal law. They should not be actively working to reduce transparency and shut citizens out of the process.”
– Derek Lyons, President and CEO of RITE
Federal law mandates that states allow the public to access certain registration information and to use that data to help ensure that registration lists are both accurate and current. State efforts to restrict citizen access and use violate the National Voter Registration Act, which was designed, in part, to improve the accuracy of registration rolls.
In notifying the State Board of Elections that it has violated the federal National Voter Registration Act, RITE also identified several additional legal problems with its anti-democratic scheme. In particular, RITE notes that the board’s conduct also violates the First Amendment by infringing on the public’s right to speak to their fellow citizens, as well as critical provisions of state election law.
Maryland’s recent rulemaking is part of a troubling trend of states attempting to restrict access to and use of their voter rolls and threatening citizens with egregious penalties if they violate those restrictions. Under federal law, citizens have every right to access and use voter list information to identify inaccuracies and other problems with voter registration records. This work benefits our democracy and improves the integrity of our elections, and states’ illegal efforts to hinder it damage citizen engagement and impair public trust in our elections and our government.
For example, this is not the first time Maryland has tried to shield its lists from public scrutiny. Less than four years ago, a federal court ended the state’s effort to unlawfully limit access to its registration list information to those who live in state. Hawaii has been sued for trying to limit citizens’ use of list information to examine potential illegal voting activity. Maine recently tried to prevent the use of its voter lists to audit the accuracy of other states’ lists. A federal court again invalidated that restriction. And in New York, the state’s Attorney General is actively threatening legal action against citizens for their efforts to use registration list information to identify inaccuracies and other problems.
RITE will support litigation to invalidate Maryland’s most recent efforts to limit access to and use of registration lists, unless the board repeals the offending regulation and stops enforcing its offending policies and procedures within 90 days, as required by federal law.
