Ninth Circuit Panel Says The Public Can't See A State's Voting List
A panel of three judges nominated by Democrats instructs the lower court to dismiss a request by a voter integrity group to ascertain the accuracy of Hawaii's voting record.
The latest outrage from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a ruling Wednesday by a three judge panel —all appointed by Democratic presidents — that a state doesn’t have to disclose its voter list.
The U.S. Department of Justice is currently engaged in a nationwide effort to ensure voter integrity on a state-by-state basis. A 2024 poll found that more than half of Americans are concerned about voter fraud.
This particular case was filed in 2023 by Public Interest Legal Foundation, Inc. (PILF), a nonprofit public interest law firm headquarters in Pennsylvania that focuses on election integrity.
The judicial panel acknowledged that the purpose of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) is to ensure that states maintain “accurate and current voter registration rolls.”
Nevertheless, the panel concluded, the public has no right to see the actual result of the state’s efforts -- that is, whether its voter rolls are honest — because the list of registered voters was not created “pursuant to the implementation of efforts to ensure the accuracy of voter lists.”
The panel further concluded that when U.S. Congress enacted the NVRA it “was focused on historical documentation of how states conduct list maintenance, not on the voter lists themselves, which constantly evolve as voters are added or removed, or as their data are updated.”
Hmmmm.
The practical effect of the decision is that there is no way for the public to ascertain whether a state is maintaining an accurate and current voting list that excludes dead people, people who have moved to a different state, and illegal immigrants.
PILF argues that the NVRA requires all states to maintain publicly accessible statewide voter registration list precisely to promote election integrity through public oversight.
Logan Churchwell, a spokesperson for the PILF, said on Wednesday that the ruling affirms that nearly every underlying document comprising Hawaii’s voter roll is accessible under the National Voter Registration Act, with the notable exception of the voter roll itself.
“Without access to the ultimate document, it’s difficult to verify that list maintenance obligations are met. This is simply the end of the first act… there’s a lot more of this story to play out,” he said.
Churchwell indicated the case will probably end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The judges on the panel are: M. Margaret McKeown, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1998; Michelle T. Friedland, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2014; and Jennifer Sung, who was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2021. Friedland wrote the decision.
When it filed suit in 2023, PILF President J. Christian Adams said: “Unfortunately, some states like Hawaii conduct their elections in the shadows. Federal law requires transparency, and voter rolls are an important list maintenance document the public can inspect. We have fought this fight and won it in court in three other states. We are confident that this lawsuit will bring transparency to Hawaii’s elections.”
The Foundation previously won access to voter rolls in Maryland, Illinois and Maine.
The lawsuit is Public Interest Legal Foundation v. Nago, No. 24-6629 (2023).