TIM MCGLONE, THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
NORFOLK — A federal judge ruled that Virginia must make its voter registration applications available for public inspection.
The opinion, issued yesterday by U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Beach Smith stems from a lawsuit filed by the national voting rights group, Project Vote, which sought access to voter applications of Norfolk State University students in the 2008 presidential election.
The group was seeking to investigate what it believed were an unusually high number of application rejections. It sued the head of Norfolk’s Office of Elections and the state Board of Elections.
“It’s a victory not just for Project Vote but it’s a victory for openness. We from the beginning thought the federal law required disclosure of these records,” Project Vote attorney Ryan Malone said.
The judge ruled that federal law that mandates openness of voter records trumps Virginia’s law that restricts access to voter registration applications only to the local registrar and the individual voter.
The judge did apply some restrictions. Only applications filed as of yesterday forward will be made available and Social Security numbers must be redacted.
Information in the public voter rolls, such as lists of registered voters and those who voted in the last election, are still available to the general public.
An attorney for the city’s general registrar for the Office of Elections and the Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to messages.
Read the original Virginian-Pilot article here.