An election resolution board counts absentee ballots Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, at the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Michael Goldberg)
- The U.S. Department of Justice has said their effort is to ensure states are properly maintaining voter rolls and complying with federal voting laws.
Mississippi is among three states that have voluntarily agreed to provide their full voter registration lists to the U.S. Department of Justice. The others are Louisiana and Tennessee.
The move comes after the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced Thursday that the federal agency had filed federal lawsuits against Georgia, Illinois, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia for failure to produce their full voter registration lists upon request.
According to the lawsuits, DOJ argues that the U.S. Attorney General is uniquely charged by Congress with the enforcement of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which were designed by Congress to ensure that states have proper and effective voter registration and voter list maintenance programs.
DOJ also contends that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 (CRA) allows the Attorney General to demand the production, inspection, and analysis of the statewide voter registration lists.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement that “the law is clear: states need to give us this information, so we can do our duty to protect American citizens from vote dilution.”
“Today’s filings show that regardless of which party is in charge of a particular state, the Department of Justice will firmly stand on the side of election integrity and transparency,” Dhillon said.
DOJ has said their effort is to ensure states are properly maintaining voter rolls and complying with federal voting laws.
With Mississippi’s agreement, the number of states that are either in full compliance or in the process of compliance is now 10, the DOJ.
Daniel Tyson
