The U.S. Department of Justice has been asking states for their unredacted voter files, which contain personal information.
Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen adamantly refuted that she released unredacted voter files, despite telling the federal government she complied with their request. In an interview with MTPR, Jacobsen maintained she withheld sensitive data.
“I have not sold anyone’s private, identifiable information. I have not given private, identifiable information,” she said.
Montana keeps a redacted voter roll that’s publicly available.
During an April 9th hearing, state lawmakers asked the secretary’s chief legal counsel, Austin James, whether the state released any additional data, like voters’ partial social security numbers. James did not answer directly, saying the federal government asserted its authority to inspect state records.
“And under our extremely high threat of litigation, [we] reserve our statement to that we have complied with both Montana and state law, and served our voters, including their privacy, very well,” he said.
James noted the U.S. Department of Justice has sued about 30 states trying to obtain their unredacted voter files.
Democratic State Sen. Laura Smith of Helena voiced her frustration.
“I guess I’m just really struggling with why you won’t tell us what voter information has been provided to the federal government.”
Jacobsen was not at the hearing. The U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to MTPR’s questions about what Montana provided.
Jacobsen told MTPR she’s glad to partner with the Trump administration on voting policies. She pointed to a software tool the federal government made accessible to states for voter roll maintenance.
Jacobsen reported the software flagged 23 Montana voter records that “appear in noncitizen status” and 900 voter records of deceased people that had not been previously identified.
“And I’m really proud of the work we have done and now we can say, there were 23 noncitizens on the voter roll, we cleaned that up,” Jacobsen said.
