{"id":1425024,"date":"2022-04-08T07:45:23","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T11:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1425024"},"modified":"2022-04-08T07:45:30","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T11:45:30","slug":"court-pennsylvania-must-release-records-on-non-citizens-voting-in-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/court-pennsylvania-must-release-records-on-non-citizens-voting-in-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Court: Pennsylvania Must Release Records On Non-Citizens Voting In Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcourt-pennsylvania-must-release-records-on-non-citizens-voting-in-elections%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1425024&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/800px-Ballot_in_the_box.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania must release records pertaining to a \u201cglitch\u201d within its Department of Transportation that allowed non-citizens to register to vote in the state for decades, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/84.pdf\">new ruling<\/a> from a U.S. district court.  <\/p>\n<p>In a March 31 <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/85.pdf\">opinion<\/a> authored by Judge Christopher Conner, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania ruled that under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/cases\/pilf-v-torres-et-al\/\">The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF)<\/a> is entitled access to documents detailing the prevalence of the issue and actions taken by the commonwealth to address the errors in the state\u2019s voting files.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe expansive obligation under NVRA to disclose voting registration records gives rise to legitimate privacy concerns. Nonetheless, we agree with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals\u2019 observation that the balance between privacy and transparency must be struck by the legislature, not the courts,\u201d Conner wrote. \u201cCongress struck such a balance when it enacted NVRA, deciding transparency in how states determine voter eligibility\u2014the vital bedrock of our electoral system\u2014is generally paramount.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In 2017, authorities discovered an error within the computer system of the state\u2019s Department of Transportation that allowed \u201cnon-United States citizens applying for or renewing a driver\u2019s license to register to vote in the Commonwealth.\u201d As a result, the government undertook a series of analyses to ascertain the extent to which the glitch allowed noncitizens onto the Commonwealth\u2019s voter registration lists,\u201d which included a \u201cnoncitizen matching analysis\u201d conducted by an outside expert.<\/p>\n<p>Although Pennsylvania had previously disclosed to PILF a list of \u201c1,160 purported noncitizens who requested to be removed from the voter registration lists,\u201d the state attempted to hide the voting histories of registrants by redacting the list. As a result of the court ruling, however, the commonwealth will now be required to turn over such information to PILF.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Commonwealth must disclose the voting histories of the 1,160 noncitizens who requested cancellation,\u201d the court stated.<\/p>\n<p>Among the records sought by PILF include all documents related to \u201cregistrants who the Commonwealth identified as potentially not satisfying the citizenship requirements for registration since January 1, 2006,\u201d and \u201cnoncitizens who requested removal from voter registration lists since January 1, 2006.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Additional information requested by the watchdog group are records \u201cprovided by jury-selection officials to the Commonwealth referencing individuals who attempted to avoid jury duty by claiming to be noncitizens,\u201d as well as those \u201crelating to any communication between the Commonwealth and law enforcement concerning alleged noncitizen voting or voter registration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the ruling affirms that Pennsylvania must turn over the majority of such documents to PILF, the court did stipulate that the state had \u201cmet its burden\u201d of providing records related to the \u201cnoncitizen matching analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Commonwealth has met its burden of showing the records in question are protected by the work-product doctrine because all relevant evidence supports the Commonwealth\u2019s assertion that the expert conducted the noncitizen matching analysis in preparation of possible litigation,\u201d the opinion reads.<\/p>\n<p>A previous lawsuit from PILF seeking similar documents filed in 2019 was struck down by the same district court, with Conner arguing that while \u201cPILF falls within NVRA\u2019s \u2018zone of interests\u2019 and had standing,\u201d the organization \u201cfailed to comply with the statute\u2019s notice requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following the court\u2019s March 31 ruling, PILF President J. Christian Adams\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/press\/pennsylvania-required-to-provide-pilf-with-voting-history-of-non-citizens-the-commonwealth-added-to-the-voter-roll\/\">applauded<\/a> the decision, saying that it is a \u201cmonumental victory for election integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmericans have a right to documents exposing government malfeasance and non-citizens being registered and even voting,\u201d he said. \u201cPennsylvania spent four years fighting transparency and trying to hide their mistakes. It is sad that transparency in Pennsylvania elections had to be enforced by a court.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Shawn Fleetwood is an intern at The Federalist and a senior at the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania must release records pertaining to a \u201cglitch\u201d within its Department of Transportation that allowed non-citizens to register to vote in the state for decades, according to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1425024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1425024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1425024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1425024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1425024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}