On Friday, Honest Elections Project (HEP) filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to grant certiorari in Public Interest Legal Foundation v. Nago. In the brief, HEP argues the following:
- The Ninth Circuit’s ruling that Hawaii’s statewide voter list is not subject to the National Voter Registration Act’s (NVRA’s) public disclosure provision is wrong; State voter registration lists are records subject to public examination under the NVRA.
- The Ninth Circuit erroneously found a conflict between the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the NVRA, when in reality, the two laws are complementary of one another. Nothing in HAVA disturbed the NVRA’s broad transparency mandates.
- Since the Ninth Circuit’s decision is at odds with rulings at the First and Tenth Circuits, the Supreme Court should take the case on appeal.
A copy of the brief can be found HERE.
Jason Snead, Executive Director of Honest Elections Project, released the following statement:
“Under the NVRA, records related to list maintenance are supposed to be available for inspection so the public can know whether states are fulfilling their legal duty to keep accurate voter rolls. The Ninth Circuit absurdly ruled that voter rolls are not a record related to list maintenance, but the result of list maintenance activity, and therefore can be kept secret. That ruling conflicts with other circuits, which is why the Supreme Court should step in to make it clear that state voter registration records are subject to public examination.”