Republican New York. Rep. Claudia Tenney sounded the alarm on New York voter registrations missing critical information in a Thursday letter to Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) released a report in October and found that 3.1 million voter registrations in New York were missing critical personally identifiable information (PII). In the letter first obtained by the Daily Caller, Tenney demanded the DOJ enforce the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), which requires states to collect PII when accepting voter registrations.
PILF’s report tracked totals of registered voters across the country for those who did not provide Social Security or driver’s license numbers over 2021 and 2022, and found a large number of registrants missing these identifiers.
HAVA prohibits states from accepting voter registration applications without PII, such as the last 4 digits of an individual’s Social Security Number or a driver’s license number if an individual has one.
“Personally identifiable information is a necessary tool for election officials and helps ensure accurate maintenance of voter rolls,” Tenney, the founder and co-chair of the Election Integrity Caucus in Congress, told the Caller before sending the letter. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans Demand DOJ Enforce ‘Basic’ Election Integrity Law)
READ THE LETTER HERE:
(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers
“Faith in our elections is at an all-time low because far too many jurisdictions across the country, including right here in New York, are failing to comply with even the most basic election integrity measures. With the 2022 midterm elections quickly approaching, the Department of Justice must take swift and immediate action to ensure New York is fully compliant with HAVA’s voter registration requirements,” Tenney added. (RELATED: We Asked The NRCC’s Top Dem Targets If They Would Endorse Biden In 2024. None Said ‘Yes’)
A group of House Republicans, led by Tenney, sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland in September calling on the DOJ to enforce basic election integrity laws before the 2022 elections.
The lawmakers mentioned an America First Policy Institute (AFPI) report titled “National Review of Retaining Election Records from the 2020 Election,” which concluded that many of the most heavily populated jurisdictions across the country are not complying with the records retention requirement under the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
“The Department of Justice is not doing its job,” PILF President J. Christian Adams said in a statement. “New York’s missing personal identifying information for 3.1 million registered voters implicates the Help America Vote Act. Without this information, it is impossible to conduct effective voter list maintenance. The Justice Department needs to enforce all federal laws, not just the ones they agree with.”
The Daily Caller contacted the DOJ about Tenney’s letter, to which they did not immediately respond.