DOJ obtains Utah’s voter rolls, seeks more personal information in search for non-citizen voters

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has handed over voter rolls to the Department of Justice, although as of Friday, it only obtained publicly available information.

Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said her office got the request from the department a few weeks ago.

“One of the things that (the department) did ask for was the complete voter rolls,” Henderson said. “Including all of the personally identifiable information for all 2.1 million Utah voters. Now we did not hand over all of that.”

When asked why the Department of Justice requested more personal information, Henderson said the department indicated that it is looking for any non-citizens who have voted.

“We’re not entirely sure (why they are asking for this information),” Henderson said. “(The department) indicated that they want to check our voter rolls for non-citizens that might be registered to vote in the state.”

This request isn’t specific to Utah. Henderson said secretaries of state all over the country are struggling with how to handle these requests.

“Private data, driver’s license numbers, the last four digits of your Social Security number, your birth date … things like that — we typically don’t just hand out willy-nilly to people,” Henderson  said. “There has to be a specific purpose for it.”

Henderson said Utah is already doing it’s own investigation into voter registration to verify citizenship. She said most cases are usually mistakes where people didn’t understand they were not allowed to vote or checked an incorrect box, but cases are still likely rare.

“There are some a handful in states that have checked, so I imagine that we will find a handful in Utah as well,” Henderson said.

When asked if people should be concerned, Henderson gave words of caution. 

“Yeah, I would be. I mean for sure,” Henderson said. “And again, I want to say that what I gave the Department of Justice today was the publicly available information that anybody can get.”

To reassure Utahns, Henderson added that if the department wants more personal information, it will need to prove its purpose in using that information lawfully.

“I can’t at this point see a lawful reason that (the department) would need all of that information,” Henderson said. “If we can’t find a lawful purpose for them to have this data, then you know they can always go to a court and get a court order in order for me to turn over that private data.”