Voting Rights Groups, Massachusetts Voter Seek to Protect Voters’ Privacy 

BOSTON, MA — The ACLU of Massachusetts and the ACLU National Voting Rights Project yesterday filed a motion to intervene on behalf of Common Cause, Jane Doe Inc., and a Massachusetts voter in United States of America v. Galvin to prevent the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) from obtaining Massachusetts voters’ personal data.

In July, the DOJ asked Massachusetts to turn over voters’ full names, dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers — highly sensitive data protected under state and federal law. Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin appropriately declined to share this sensitive data.

In their motion to intervene, the advocates, Jane Doe, Inc. and a voter argue that the DOJ’s request threatens voter privacy and could enable voter disenfranchisement.

Jane Doe Inc. is a coalition of organizations dedicated to advocating on behalf of survivors of sexual and domestic violence. The group has an interest in protecting the privacy of survivors. Juan Pablo Jaramillo, a naturalized U.S. citizen, is also represented in the case. Jaramillo has an interest because his status as a naturalized citizen may place him at a heightened risk of being targeted for voter disenfranchisement, a threat that extends to countless other Massachusetts voters.

“Unelected bureaucrats in Washington have no business accessing Bay Staters’ sensitive personal information,” said Geoff Foster, Common Cause’s Massachusetts executive director. “Handing this data over to the federal government violates the law and would put voters’ private information in the hands of dangerous election conspiracy peddlers. Common Cause Massachusetts is fighting to protect the rights of our 29,000-plus members and all Bay State voters and to prevent the misuse of their data.”

“Voters in Massachusetts and across the country deserve to know their personal information is secure and used only for its intended purpose of maintaining accurate records,” said Maryam Jazini Dorcheh, senior director of litigation at Common Cause. “We are committed to defending voters’ rights and privacy in Massachusetts and nationwide, and this case is one of many where we are stepping in to ensure those protections are upheld.”

"We are representing Common Cause, Jane Doe Inc., and Mr. Jaramillo as proposed intervenors in this matter to help stop an alarming and unlawful overreach by the federal government," said Jessie Rossman, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. "The DOJ has no legitimate purpose to collect unredacted, sensitive and private information on millions of voters across Massachusetts. The Trump administration's attempts to compel production of this data threatens to chill the exercise of the fundamental right to vote, which is a preservative of all other rights in this country.  We will fight such abuses every step of the way."

“Federal overreach of this kind threatens voters’ privacy and their fundamental right to participate in our democracy,” said Ari Savitzky, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “The Department of Justice is using the civil rights statutes as pretext to try to hoover up private voter data and use it for improper ends. Voters’ rights are at stake, and their voices must be heard.”

“At JDI, we know that privacy is foundational for survivor safety. Demands that threaten privacy protections for Massachusetts voters place survivors and other vulnerable communities at real and immediate risk. These safeguards are not optional — they are fundamental to survivor safety, public trust, and meaningful civic engagement. We are proud to join our partners in resisting these dangerous and chilling demands,” said Hema Sarang-Sieminski, executive director of Jane Doe, Inc. 

Common Cause previously filed a lawsuit in Nebraska to protect state voter data and joined with the ACLU Voting Rights Project to file motions to intervene as defendants in DOJ lawsuits against Colorado, New Mexico, Maryland, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota for failing to turn over their voters’ private data.

View the full motion to intervene here.