Lawsuit: Indiana Citizen requests access to list of 550,000+ voters AG Rokita, Diego Morales sent to

INDIANAPOLIS -- A central Indiana news outlet has filed a lawsuit against Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales and Attorney General Todd Rokita after the state officials had previously asked the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to verify the citizenship of more than 550,000 Hoosier voters.




The Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, on behalf of the Indiana Citizen, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in Marion Superior Court accusing Morales and Rokita of violating the Indiana Access to Public Records Act. The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news outlet.

How did we get here?

On Oct. 11, 2024, Morales and Rokita petitioned then-USCIS Director Ur Jaddou to use the agency's Person Centric Query Service to verify the citizenship of 585,774 individuals found on Indiana's voter registration roll. At the time, Morales and Rokita wanted this to be completed before the November general election.




A letter that was sent at that time by Morales and Rokita stated that they wished to verify the citizenship of these voters to help build "confidence in the integrity of (the state's) elections." This reportedly included registered voters who did not provide a driver's license number or social security number, voters based overseas and registered Indiana voters who registered to vote without providing a driver's license number.




In a development that emerged in April, Rokita and Morales filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, accusing DHS of failing to confirm whether certain individuals were registered to vote in Indiana after Rokita and Morales alleged that some voters had reportedly registered without proper state IDs.




The lawsuit also accuses DHS of violating a federal statute requiring the agency to respond to state inquiries related to the citizenship status of prospective voters.

What does the lawsuit say?

The lawsuit references the state's Access to Public Records Act (APRA), stating Rokita and Morales refused to make the list, which they contend is a public record, available upon request.




APRA is defined as "the public policy of the state that all persons are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those who represent them as public officials and employees."




On Oct. 17, 2024, Marilyn Odendahl, in her capacity as the editor of the Indiana Citizen, requested the list of 585,744 names that were sent to USCIS. The lawsuit said Odendahl did not receive a response from Morales' or Rokita's offices until Dec. 11, when the attorney general's office denied the request, citing the Indiana Code section 3-7-26.4 when justifying their reasons for not disclosing the document to the public.




Over the coming months, the Indiana Citizen received a boost after the former Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt ruled in its favor, concluding that "denial was improper based on the law as plainly written."








"[The Indiana Citizen] had to wait 55 days before a denial that was, for all intents and purposes, a foregone conclusion," Britt said. "So too was the value of the list diminished by denying access after the election."




Following this opinion, the office of the attorney general agreed on March 14 to permit the Indiana Citizen "limited public access" to the list while taking handwritten notes. The outlet expressed its dissatisfaction with these conditions but went ahead and filed a request in July to access the list.




According to the lawsuit, Rokita and Morales requested that new Public Access Counselor Jennifer Ruby reconsider the complaint and withdraw their offer.

Reactions

FOX59/CBS4 has contacted the Indiana Secretary of State, Attorney General and Indiana Citizen for comment on the lawsuit. As of this article's publication, we have not received any responses.





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