Illinois Illegally Denied Elections Group Access To Voter Records, Federal Court Rules A federal court ruled that Illinois violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) when it refused to provide an election integrity group with access to the state’s voter roll. “Election officials must allow citizens to see what they are doing,” said J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), the successful plaintiff in the case. Indianapolis-based PILF describes itself as “the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity.” The nonprofit organization “exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections.” PILF regularly uses the Public Disclosure Provision of the NVRA, along with state and federal open records laws that require government records be made available to the public, the group stated in the legal complaint (pdf) filed July 27, 2020, in the Springfield office of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. Using records and data compiled through these open records laws, PILF “analyzes the programs and activities of state and local election officials in order to determine whether lawful efforts are being made to keep voter rolls current and accurate,” the complaint states. The NVRA provides that “Each State shall maintain for at least 2 years and shall make available for public inspection and, where available, photocopying at a reasonable cost, all records concerning the implementation of programs and activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters.” The complaint cites Project Vote v. Long, a 2012 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in stating that the Public Disclosure Provision of the NVRA “embodies Congress’s conviction that Americans who are eligible under law to vote have every right to exercise their franchise, a right that must not be sacrificed to administrative chicanery, oversights, or inefficiencies.” The ruling (pdf) in the case, Public Interest Legal Foundation v. Matthews, court file 20-cv-3190, came on March 8. The defendants are Bernadette Matthews, who was sued in her official capacity as executive director of the Illinois State Board of Elections, the board itself, and two other board officials. District Judge Sue Myerscough, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, found that the defendants “acted in violation of the Public Disclosure Provision of the NVRA when Defendants refused to make available for viewing and photocopying the full statewide voter registration list.” https://www.zerohedge.com/political/illinois-illegally-denied-elections-group-access-voter-records-federal-court-rules
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