The United States District Court for the District of Maryland struck a blow for election integrity by siding with plaintiffs Katherine Strauch Sullivan and David Morsberger in their legal battle against Maryland State Board of Elections officials.
The court’s ruling dismantles overreaching state-imposed restrictions that had prevented access to critical voter registration data, thereby championing the cause of transparency and accountability in the electoral process.
The plaintiffs, both registered Maryland voters, argued that the state’s regulations unjustly restricted their ability to use the voter registration list to investigate potential inaccuracies and irregularities—a right that they claimed was safeguarded under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
The crux of the controversy centered around a state regulation that explicitly banned the use of these lists for investigations into past elections, which the court found to be preempted by federal law.