United States Court of Appeals - For the First Circuit

The first is whether Section 8(i)(1) of the National Voter Registration Act ("NVRA"), which requires public disclosure of "all records concerning the implementation of programs and activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters," 52 U. [...] On February 19, 2020, PILF filed suit against the then−Maine Secretary of State in the United States District Court for the District of Maine alleging that the denial of access to the Voter File was a violation of Section 8(i)(1). [...] Specifically, a person obtaining the Voter File under Exception J may not: (1) Sell, transfer to another person or use the voter information or any part of the information for any purpose that is not directly related to evaluating the State's compliance with its voter list maintenance obligations [(hereinafter the "Use Ban")]; or (2) Cause the voter information or any part of the voter information. [...] The district court first determined "that the Voter File is a 'record[] concerning the implementation of programs and activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters' within the meaning of [Section 8(i)(1)] and thus is subject to disclosure under the NVRA." The district court then concluded that PILF "ha[d] pleaded sufficient facts th. [...] For the above reasons, Maine's Voter File is a "record[] concerning the implementation of programs and activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters" and is thus subject to disclosure under Section 8(i)(1).