Federal officials continue to behave as though they have the right to demand access to West Virginia’s full unredacted voter registration database. Earlier this week, U.S. Department of Justice attorneys filed a memorandum asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia to compel West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner to turn over that list.

Unbelievably, they tried to use the Civil Rights Act to do it.

Christopher J. Gardner, a trial attorney for the Voting Section of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, wrote: “Secretary Warner cannot deny the Attorney General access to West Virginia’s SVRL or other federal elections records because of conflicting state law.”

Warner can, and he has said he will.

“West Virginians entrust me with their sensitive personal information. Turning it over to the federal government, which is contrary to state law, will simply not happen,” Warner said in February. “State law is clear: Voter lists are available in a redacted format from my office, but I’ll not be turning over any West Virginian’s protected information.”

Warner must stand firm against this extreme example of attempted federal overreach.

“Congress passed the Civil Rights Act to empower federal intervention when states were actively blocking people of color from voting,” wrote Andrew Garber, counsel in the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Elections Program. “The law is not a blank check for the federal government to overrun state election management.”

Warner has rightly asserted the state (and its counties) are far better suited to do the work the federal government SAYS it wants done, anyway.

“The DOJ claims it wants to enforce voter list maintenance laws and receiving West Virginians’ personal information is the way to do it,” Warner said. “I dare say that the DOJ cannot do a better job than the 55 West Virginia county clerks who have accomplished the herculean task of refreshing more than half of the State’s voter rolls over the last 9 years, and continue to do so on a daily basis.”

Lawsuits and memorandums will not stop West Virginia and several other states from fighting this bizarre federal attempt, nor will it keep Warner and the rest of the Secretary of State’s office from holding fast in protecting our information.