Orange County supervisors voted against directing the county elections official to turn over sensitive voter registration data to the Department of Justice after the DOJ sued for the information. Republican supervisors Don Wagner and Janet Nguyen had sought to comply with a request for records of 17 ineligible voters who nonetheless appeared on registration rolls. County lawyers said the board vote would not compel disclosure because the county is not named in the lawsuit, and several supervisors preferred to let a judge decide. Experts interpreted the decision as a signal of local pushback against federal scrutiny of election administration and data requests.
Orange County leaders this week declined to direct their top elections official to release sensitive voter data to the Department of Justice after the agency sued for the information in June. Republican Supervisors Don Wagner and Janet Nguyen on Tuesday sought support from the rest of the board to comply with the federal government's request to turn over voter registration records of 17 individuals who were ineligible to cast a ballot but had appeared on the county's voter registration rolls.
Instead, a majority of the board voted against the request, with several noting they preferred to let a judge decide whether the information should ultimately be released. The vote, county lawyers said, wouldn't be enough to force the county registrar to turn over any information anyway since the county isn't named in the lawsuit. But experts say the move signals a willingness in this onetime conservative stronghold to push back against the Trump administration's attempts to expand federal power and seek sensitive information on individuals.
Collection
[
|
...
]