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LINCOLN — Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen is asking a district court judge to pause a lawsuit over whether he will hand the state’s voter data to the federal government in light of the ongoing federal shutdown.
Nebraska Solicitor General Cody Barnett and the state Attorney General’s Office, on behalf of Evnen in a Friday motion, asked that the case be delayed so Evnen could continue discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice over how voter privacy would be protected. Negotiations had to pause because of the ongoing federal shutdown since Sept. 30 — now on day 20.
The motion states that without federal funding, Justice Department attorneys can’t work, even on a voluntary basis. It asks to pause the case until Evnen can reopen discussions, but to resume it no more than 60 days after the shutdown ends.
“It is in the interest of judicial economy and conducive to an efficient resolution of this matter that this agreement be completed and available for production before the next stages of litigation,” the motion states.
Evnen anticipates the discussions “will yield an agreement that will impact the arguments made in this case,” according to the motion. That could mean getting in writing how the privacy of the voter information — names, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers — would be protected.
The motion also confirms that Evnen will not send the requested voter data to the federal government during the course of the lawsuit.
The Justice Department requested Nebraska’s fuller voter file Sept. 8 with a Sept. 22 deadline. The lawsuit was filed Sept. 22 by Omaha voter Dawn Essink and voter advocacy group Common Cause.
Attorney Daniel Gutman, for Essink and Common Cause, confirmed that his clients do not oppose Evnen’s motion but still oppose the federal request for voter information.
“We continue to believe that releasing the entire voter file to the federal government is plainly unlawful under Nebraska statutes,” Gutman said Monday. “That’s true regardless of whether the state reaches an MOU [memorandum of understanding] with any third party, including the federal government.”
The lawsuit cites a state law prohibiting election officials from disclosing certain voter information, preventing third parties from making or receiving copies of the voter registry and restricting the use of voter registry copies to only “list maintenance” or law enforcement purposes. Anyone who receives the information must attest that they will use the list for authorized purposes and won’t post it online, under threat of election falsification charges, a Class IV felony.
