After losing his bid for governor, Phil Lyman, backed with a conservative national group that has made repeated claims of fraud in elections, is demanding the state turn over a complete list of Utah’s registered voters.
Under Utah law, information cannot be released for those protected groups and other voters who asked to have their data kept private prior to May 2020 — when the law was changed to limit the ability of voters to keep their records confidential.
But Lyman and his attorneys from the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), in a lawsuit filed Friday, argue that the National Voter Registration Act trumps state law and requires the lieutenant governor to provide Lyman with the complete, unredacted voter registration file.
J. Christian Adams, PILF general counsel and president, said after this story was first published that the lawsuit is not seeking records of individuals who are victims of domestic or dating violence, law enforcement officers and military personnel who have requested their records be withheld.
If Lyman, a former state lawmaker, prevails, anyone who requests the file would also have the same unfettered access to voter rolls.
A spokesperson for Lt. Gov Deidre Henderson, whose office oversees state elections, said the office does not comment on pending lawsuits.
Previously, the office rejected Lyman’s claims because “it does not have discretion to ignore state statute and provide unrestricted access to the state’s voter rolls as you have requested,” according to Lyman’s lawsuit.
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This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.