Legislators Take Step to Subpoena Secretary of State
Oversight committee still wants answers about voter roll data turned over to feds
By Keila Szpaller, Daily Montanan
Legislators took a step this week toward issuing a subpoena to Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen for information about voter records her office provided to the federal government.
Rep. Kelly Kortum, D-Bozeman, made the motion to direct staff to draft the subpoena, arguing Montanans value their privacy rights, protected in the Montana Constitution.
“I know a lot of Montanans don’t like the federal government knowing what video games they play, or if they own guns, or how often they vote,” Kortum said. “So I would ask in this case that we trust but verify, because we don’t know.”
On a 6-5 vote, members of the State Administration and Veterans Affairs Committee directed staff to draft the subpoena to require the Secretary of State to provide the information her office turned over to the federal government.
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Justice has pressed states, including Montana, for full voter rolls, citing federal law.
The DOJ called for “unredacted voter rolls,” which would include the last four digits of a person’s Social Security Number and their driver’s license numbers.
Jacobsen’s office turned over some information to the DOJ last year, but for months, her office has not answered questions about what it provided.
The vote this week came after the committee decided in April to make a last ditch effort to see if Jacobsen would provide the information voluntarily. She did not.
Austin James, chief legal counsel for the Secretary of State, has told lawmakers he’s not sharing details because he wants to avoid a lawsuit, citing litigation in other states.
At the meeting this week, Kortum said he wanted to see the headers in the table or spreadsheet the Secretary of State shared with the federal government.
Kortum said the idea would be to compare those headers against the state’s constitutional right to privacy to see if legislators need to tighten up privacy protections, and the clock was ticking.
“Let’s get this data before the elections start happening,” Kortum said.
Sen. Theresa Manzella, chairwoman, and Rep. Kathy Love, both Hamilton Republicans, joined Kortum and all other Democrats to support the motion. The five other Republicans opposed it.
The committee will review the subpoena once it’s drafted, and issuing it will require another vote.
Andria Hardin, with Legislative Services, said if the committee issues the subpoena, the Secretary of State may file litigation to quash it and include a request for attorneys’ fees. Hardin said she couldn’t estimate the cost.
Manzella said the money would come from the committee’s budget, but she believes the answer to the question is worth pursuing because legislators need clarity on their Constitutional responsibility to safeguard the election process.
Although the committee can issue the subpoena, Hardin said the Montana Supreme Court set a high bar for one branch of government to seek information from another branch. In other words, she said, legislators can’t go on “a hunting expedition,” but they need to show how the information will support future legislation.
Rep. Peter Strand, D-Bozeman, said he supported the demand for information because he did not want to set a precedent that the Secretary of State didn’t have to answer questions from the oversight committee.
The committee has the responsibility to monitor the Secretary of State’s Office.
“We’re being gaslit here,” Strand said.
