The United States District Court for the District of Maryland struck a blow for election integrity by siding with plaintiffs Katherine Strauch Sullivan and David Morsberger in their legal battle against Maryland State Board of Elections officials.
The court’s ruling dismantles overreaching state-imposed restrictions that had prevented access to critical voter registration data, thereby championing the cause of transparency and accountability in the electoral process.
The plaintiffs, both registered Maryland voters, argued that the state’s regulations unjustly restricted their ability to use the voter registration list to investigate potential inaccuracies and irregularities—a right that they claimed was safeguarded under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
The crux of the controversy centered around a state regulation that explicitly banned the use of these lists for investigations into past elections, which the court found to be preempted by federal law.
The court’s memorandum opinion, penned by Judge Matthew J. Maddox, decisively affirmed that such state-imposed restrictions were incompatible with the NVRA’s objectives. The ruling emphasized that the federal act was designed to enhance voter participation while simultaneously ensuring the accuracy of voter rolls—goals that Maryland’s restrictive measures directly undermined.
Read the press release below:
Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (“RITE”) won a major victory for election integrity and transparency in federal court that ensures the public access to critical tools for holding election administrators accountable to their obligation to maintain clean, up-to-date, and accurate voter rolls.
RITE sued Maryland in January of 2024 on behalf of two citizen activists, challenging a State Board of Elections (“SBE”) regulation that stopped them from conducting investigations into whether the state was removing non-residents, the deceased, and duplicate registrations. RITE’s suit alleged Maryland’s law violated the National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”), a federal law that requires states to provide the public access with records that reveal whether they are maintaining accurate and current voter registration records.
Plaintiffs’ investigative canvassing had revealed multiple anomalies within the state’s voter records, findings consistent with a recent legislative audit. Rather than direct their efforts to promoting free and accurate elections, SBE responded by enacting a regulation that sought to shut down plaintiffs’ work. SBE restricted plaintiffs’ access to and use of state records, including voter history information, a key record for determining whether a state is removing non-residents from its voter lists as required by federal law. RITE sued on their behalf, and today, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland delivered a resounding and complete victory in RITE’s favor. The court held that the SBE had violated federal law and enjoined its unlawful effort to suppress the plaintiffs’ work. In doing so, the court fully endorsed RITE’s position that the NVRA requires that states make voter history information available to the public, the most direct ruling from any court in the country on that issue to date.
RITE’s win on behalf of plaintiffs will help ensure the public has access to important records that allow them to evaluate whether states are removing dead voters, non-residents, non-citizens, and other ineligible voters.
“RITE’s win today is a significant victory for election transparency and the rule of law. RITE warned Maryland that its regulation limiting public access to key registration records was illegal – and it is,” said RITE’s President & CEO Derek Lyons. “Today’s ruling enables citizens across the country, and in Maryland in particular, to conduct important investigative work that promotes clean voter rolls and safe, secure, and accurate elections.”
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