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LEGAL NEWSLINE

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Update on Attorney General’s Cease and Desist Letter to Voting Information/Voter Participation Center

Brown

Attorney General Anthony G. Brown | Official U.S. House Headshot

e Office of the Attorney General (OAG) received a response from the Center for Voter Information/Voter Participation Center (CVI/VPC) to a cease-and-desist letter that the OAG issued on October 31, 2024, ordering the organization to immediately stop sending letters to Maryland voters in which the letters were stating that the voters’ records would be reviewed after the election to determine whether or not the voter had joined their neighbors in voting.

The CVI/VPC has assured the OAG that it will not publicize information that identifies particular voters and their voting histories, including a voter’s participation in the 2024 Presidential election. The organization also indicated that it has no plans for any further mailings in Maryland; however, it did inform our office that there are letters already in the mail stream that may not have been delivered before the cease-and-desist letter was sent and could still arrive in mailboxes over the coming days. 

Finally, the organization responded to a footnote referenced in the cease-and-desist letter, clarifying that it did not send any text messages to voters’ phones. The OAG and the State Board of Elections (SBE) received several complaints about the CVI/VPC’s “Voting Report Cards,” which identified whether recipients had voted in each of the last four elections and compared the recipients’ voting histories to those of two of their neighbors who live on the same street. In their response, the CVI/VPC stated that it is not planning to publicize information post-election as that is not something that the organization has done in the past or will do in the future. The OAG is satisfied that the organization will not improperly contact voters following this election to report on their, or their neighbors’, voting records and the OAG has no plans to take any further legal action. The Office of the Attorney General wants to assure Maryland voters that the choice to vote is every individual voter’s choice to make. Maryland’s voters should feel free to make that choice on their own, free from any undue influence.

Marylanders with concerns about voter intimidation should contact either the Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division or the Maryland State Board of Elections. You can reach the Civil Rights Division by email at civilrights@oag.state.md.us or online using this form: https://bit.ly/48w8WF7. The State Board of Elections can be reached by phone at 410-269-2840 or email at info.sbe@maryland.gov

Original source can be found here.

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