Michigan says DOJ silence is stalling effort to turn over voter records

VotebeatisanonprofitnewsorganizationreportingonvotingaccessandelectionadministrationacrosstheU.S.SignupforVotebeatMichigan’sfreenewsletterhere. TheMichiganDepartmentofStateistryingtosendalongaportionofthevoterregistrationdatarequestedbytheU.S.JusticeDepartment,butonestateofficialsaysit’swaitingforthefederalgovernmenttotellithow. Thestateissendingonlythepartofthevoterrollthatisaccessibletoanyone,includingnamesandvotinghistory.ItisnotincludingSocialSecuritynumbersorotherprivateinformation,citingfederallawsthatbanitfromsharingthat. ButMichiganofficialssaytheycan’tsendanythingifJusticeDepartmentofficialsdon’texplainhowtosecurelytransfertherecords. Thequalifiedvoterfile,orQVF,isavailabletoanyonewhofilesaFreedomofInformationActrequestwiththeMichiganDepartmentofState.Thefileismassive—itwasnearlythreegigabyteswhenVotebeatlastrequesteditinJune,evenbeforeincludingadditionaldocumentsneededtointerpretit—andcanbedifficul