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Lawsuit Filed Against Utah Lieutenant Governor Over Voter Privacy Concerns

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Two Utah groups are suing the Lieutenant Governor’s office to protect voter privacy after a request from the Trump administration to turn over the state’s voter rolls.   

The suit was filed this week by the Utah League of Women Voters and League of United Latin American Citizens as well as two private individuals.

They want to ensure that Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox does not release any sensitive information to President Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which is investigating alleged voter fraud.

“We want him [Cox] to affirm that they will not have access to birth dates of Utah voters because we believe that is confidential information that can lead to privacy breaches that we don’t think any Utah voter would be comfortable with," said Catherine Weller, president of the League of Women Voter of Utah.

Lt. Gov. Cox has previously stated that private information such as birth dates would not be included and that the commission, led by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, would need to file a formal public records request to obtain the data.

This is the latest in a series of legal challenges aimed at the commission by voting rights groups. The Brennan Center for Justice out of New York is one of the law firms representing the Utah plaintiffs. They’ve also filed lawsuits in Indiana and Texas.

 

Julia joined KUER in 2016 after a year reporting at the NPR member station in Reno, Nev. During her stint, she covered battleground politics, school overcrowding, and any story that would take her to the crystal blue shores of Lake Tahoe. Her work earned her two regional Edward R. Murrow awards. Originally from the mountains of Western North Carolina, Julia graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2008 with a degree in journalism. She’s worked as both a print and radio reporter in several states and several countries — from the 2008 Beijing Olympics to Dakar, Senegal. Her curiosity about the American West led her to take a spontaneous, one-way road trip to the Great Basin, where she intends to continue preaching the gospel of community journalism, public radio and podcasting. In her spare time, you’ll find her hanging with her beagle Bodhi, taking pictures of her food and watching Patrick Swayze movies.
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