A coalition of civil rights organizations and Florida residents filed a federal lawsuit Monday against Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner and a White House commission, accusing them of potentially violating state and federal laws to try to build a nationwide voter database.
The legal challenge, filed in the Southern District of Florida, was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, former state Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, Tampa City Councilman Mike Suarez, Joshua Simmons of Broward County and Brenda Shapiro of Miami-Dade County.
It says the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, nicknamed the ‘Voter Fraud Panel,’ has violated a slew of technical federal requirements about how the panel should conduct its business and how voters' records should be handled.
"The executive order does not empower the Presidential Advisory Commission to amass and centralize a federal database of voters and then publicize it," the lawsuit says, referring to a directive issued by President Donald Trump setting up the panel. The challenge asks for the court to order the commission to stop collecting voter data, at least until a "privacy impact assessment" has been completed. It also asks for an injunction to prevent Detzner from turning over any information deemed confidential by Florida law, though Detzner has already said he wouldn't turn over sensitive data.
"To ensure defendant Detzner complies with (state law), and to prohibit the commission from attempting to obtain that protected information from any other source, plaintiffs seek an injunction pursuant to (state law) to preclude disclosure of the Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers of Florida voters," the suit says.
After days of criticism from Florida Democrats, Detzner's office announced last Thursday it would release only publicly available information covered by the presidential commission's request. The national ACLU filed similar claims on some of the federal counts in a lawsuit in Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, fears about data breaches and identity theft — or flat-out aversion to what many perceive as a Big Brother-ish information gathering activity — continued even as a representative of the commission on Monday told state officials not to provide the voter data previously requested.
Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner was among the state officials who received the missive from Andrew Kossack, the designated federal officer for the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.
Kossack advised Detzner and others to ignore the committee's request for voter data — including dates of birth, party affiliation, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers — because of a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC. The lawsuit, among other things, asked a judge for a temporary restraining order.
“Until the judge rules on the TRO, we request that you hold on submitting any data. We will follow up with you with further instructions once the judge issues her ruling,” Kossack, said in the email to state officials Monday.
On “First Coast Connect” Tuesday, League of Women Voters of Florida President Pamela Goodman said her group had been concerned about the possible release of data, but “We did not oppose him giving away information that is publicly accessible.”
However, she said, the organization's main concern is how the government intends to use the information.
“Clearly one must question, ‘What are they doing with this information? They never said,” she said.
The league, along with several officials from other states, has expressed concern about the commission’s origin as well. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is one of the people in charge of the commission, but Kobach has “a long history of discriminatory and regressive actions on voting rights,” Goodman said.
She said there’s the potential the information the commission is asking for could be used to take away voter rights of minorities.
Forty-four states have refused to give out all of the information the commission is requesting, and 22 of those states have refused to give away any information at all.
To hear the entire interview with Pamela Goodman, listen to Wednesday’s “First Coast Connect."
